Halo Effect: Reunion
by Sedsone
Summary: Halo and Mass Effect crossover. System Alliance is in war with Turian Hierarchy and Batarian Hegemony while SSV Normandy looks for their lost relatives.  re-upload
1. Chapter 1

_**I don't own either Mass Effect or Halo. Halo belongs to Microsoft Studios and 343 Industries. Mass Effect belongs to Bioware and Electronic Arts**_

_**I decided to re-upload story cause the first one got a bugged/glitches after I removed chapter 4. Also I updated it a little so I hope you will forgive me for a new upload.**_

_**Okay people, this is a request from me to you.**_

**1)** I ask you that you do not flame me over grammar and spelling mistakes. I am not from England or USA, so English is my secondary language. There for mistakes are to be expected.

**2)** I know that there are some "canon" mistakes, but this is a crossover after all. If I had go with Mass Effect in halo timeline then Tali, Sheppard, Garrus and other main characters from Mass Effect, with exception of Liara would be dead of old age. I hope you find my System Alliance origin acceptable.

**3)** I will try to keep it canon as I can, but as you know these two franchises are different, while at the same time they are similar in their own way.

**4)** If you have any points about story that I made wrong please point them out.

**5)** I hope you have fun reading it and please use user friendly reviews

* * *

><p><strong>Captain's log: 08:45 Earth time September 3, 2163.<strong>

"_4 years of war we fight against the Turians and now the Batarians._

_It's actually ironic, after the Citadel intervened and forced peace between us and Turians during the so called "First contact war", which lost its purpose now._

_The peace only lasted 3 years, this was because one of Turian specters discovered that we use an A.I. Ironically, as far as I know, it's not an A.I. of our making._

_The point is that since now "we" as a whole human race know of Citadel law, and one of those laws is the prohibit AI use. And as soon as the Turians learned that, the attack on us started once again, only that now "the gloves are off" as Turians ignored the damage done on our planets during their assaults. As such, civilian casualties are high. The surviving military is horded on Turian ships and transported to either labor camps on Turian camps build on colony they occupy or orbital/asteroid/meteor mines while colonist are under strict curfew law._

_Our fleet is decimated in the battles against our enemies. I would never have thought that the Turians would employ such aggressive admirals against us. The Batarians on other hand were expected to do just that. After all the council, gave us permission to colonize "Skyllian Verge". Now they have a chance to pay us back, and they do that with the destruction of every Human ship or station they found. For colonies, we received reports that human colonists are either sold as slaves, while those who resist are executed mercilessly._

_For now, our only hope is to hold against Turians and Batarians long enough to either get the Citadel to pardon us for the use of A.I. or to force both races into retreat from our offensive after our fleet, with the use of guerilla tactics, weakens theirs._

_However, our admirals want my ship to go into a previously restricted mass relay. The Normandy will transport a squad of heavily armed soldiers and a System Alliance representative. The reason why is unknown to me, as all details are classified. However there is a rumor spreading around the admirals, I quote "It's time to ask our 'forgotten' brothers for help"_

_I don't know what this means, but if nothing else, it will be interesting and a good distraction from the war we are losing at the moment._"

**Captain of the Normandy: David Edward Anderson.**

**On 2424** Insurrection constructs massive colony ships and armed ships. Their objective is to flee UNSC controlled space. This fleet soon counted 30 colony and 16 military ships and it went on its journey in 2426. The journey lasted for almost a 100 years. When they arrive at their destination they settled on a planet that can support human life. In 2534 the insurrections build their home on planet they now call New Earth.

**In 2541** they are officially renamed into System Alliance and they develop their own ships and technology, however they still use A.I.s that they brought with them. In 2542 they discover a mass relay, something they call "the greatest discovery in mankind history". As they made this discovery, the first generation from colony ships decided to change their time-line into the one before mankind went into space, thus into 2000. During the time of First contact war, only the high admirals know of UNSC while the rest of System Alliance knows nothing about their long lost relatives due to cover story the insurrection leaders come up. By the time of first contact they had 42 colonies under their control with 12 more in development.

**In 2157**, the System Alliance newest colony Shanxi makes first contact with alien force shortly after they send a 3 ship expedition through a dormant mass relay. This started the 3 month war between the aliens known as Turian Hierarchy and the human System Alliance. The war ended when a group of aliens known as "Citadel Council" intervened and brokered peace. While First contact war had no official winner, its publicly believed its the System Alliance, as it did suffer fewer losses than the Turians did. Alliance is favored by the council due to their military strength and with its permission they now spread their colonies by using "citadel" mass relays. This led them into "Skyllian Verge", where another alien species, known as Batarians wanted to settle their colonies, thus spreading mistrust among the Alliance and the Batarians.

**In 2158** Alliance begins their project of constructing carrier class ships and stealth ships. Other races are impressed by the humans "thinking outside the box" and begin to duplicate alliance carriers into their forces while stealth ship is kept a secret from them. Alliance starts N7 programs, in short Alliance wanted to train super soldiers compared to normal marines.

**In 2159** shocking news about the Alliance is revealed to the Citadel council by one of their top specter agents Saren Arterius. This news was about Alliance using A.I. which is prohibited by Citadel laws. Council demands that the Alliance facility on Sidon which is researching and developing A.I. , decommission all existing A.I.s, while Alliance faced heavy fines and censure as a result. Alliance refuses to decommission all A.I. pointing out that their A.I.s are different than the Geth. As a response to Alliance refusal, Turians deploy additional forces on Alliance borders.

**In 2160** a human survivalist paramilitary group known as Cerberus launches a preemptive strike against Turian fleet massing at Shanxi relay. Cerberus deployed 9 freighters, each carrying several megaton yield warheads. This resulted in massive casualties for the Turians as 6 of their 37 dreadnoughts were destroyed along with currently unknown number of cruisers and frigates. Council is shocked by humans possessing forbidden weapons while Turians launch a full scale invasion as a retaliation, as the result Shanxi defense fleet was destroyed and Shanxi was lost once again. Now a full scaled war has begun and Batarians joined the Turians in their "just crusade against the rouge Humans"

**Date: January 9, 2164**

**Location: frontline around Eden Prime, SSV Leonardo da Vinci**

Admiral Hackett stood on top of his new flagship on the war scarred 8th fleet. The last one, a dreadnought class was destroyed in the last massive engagement against the Turian 4th legion. SSV Fuji was destroyed when it rammed one of the Turian dreadnoughts and destroyed both of them along with several Batarian cruisers in the resulting explosion. The battle was eventually lost, but the Alliance navy managed to delay the Batarian and Turian ground forces long enough for most of Alliance civilians to be evacuated from Elysium.

"_Admiral, we're detecting a relay activation, frigates SSV Bulge, Stalingrad, Midway, Okinawa, Neretva and Sutjeska are moving in to inspect incoming_" spoke Leonardo da Vinci navigator "_Cruisers SSV Washington and Berlin are moving in to support them in case of hostile forces_"

"_Man, I sure hope that they aren't hostiles, we don't have any dreadnoughts to support us_ "spoke one of the Vinci com officers.

"_Deploy our fighters and interceptors, then send word to Eden to prepare for a possible ground attack_" spoke Admiral Hackett as he observed the map of system and continued "_Arm nuclear warheads on our heavy fighters, we will need them if enemy has dreadnoughts too_"

"_Aye aye sir_" was heard from various personnel on da Vinci CIC.

"_Admiral, our advance forces near the relay report that they engaged Turian forces. Stalingrad and Midway are destroyed, Washington is crippled. I'm receiving report from Berlin about the size of the Turian forces: 12 frigates, 8 cruisers and a dreadnought. No report on any carrier's sir_" spoke the Da Vinci com officer

"_I can confirm that information sir, no Turian carriers are present in battle, however it's possible that it's just an advance party admiral_" an officer spoke over the com from CIC "_Admiral I request that you join us in the CIC, Turian formation is… different than what they normally use_"

"_Admiral, Washington was destroyed by Turian fighters, their GARDIANs were overwhelmed_" spoke one of CIC officers over the com in a quiet voice _"Have the remains of the advance forces to retreat towards our position to reinforce us_" ordered admiral Hackett as he entered the CIC _"When will our reinforces arrive?_"

As he said that the advance forces have joined SSV Leonardo da Vinci and its escort fleet of several cruisers and frigates. Combined the System Alliance had 15 frigates, 12 cruisers and a carrier, thus having larger fleet then Turians, but Hackett knows that the main problem is their dreadnought with its massive firepower. The only way that he could now win, is by taking out that monster first and then focuses on driving the remains of Turian force away from Eden Prime.

"_Divert our fighters, armed with nuclear warheads, to attack the dreadnought, have them fire their nuclear warheads as soon as they are in range, and have the remaining fighters provide torpedoes to swarm their GARDIANs along with our interceptors._" ordered Hackett as he drew their route against the capital ship. A few moments later the entire fighter and Interceptor load was deployed from SSV Leonardo da Vinci and raced against the Turian fleet.

"_Have 6 frigates and 4 cruisers to escort them and provide extra support against Turian interceptors_" added one of CIC officers. Hackett nod and approved this order.

_XXXXX_

SSV Berlin is leading the charge against Turian fleet. Luckily for it, it only received limited damage during knife fight at the relay. Now Berlin is once again on the offensive, leading strike force against Turians. This is exactly why Berlin was build with additional armor and additional disruptor torpedo launchers. This come at the price however, as its maneuverability was decreased by the additional weapons and armor.

"_This is captain of SSV Berlin to all frigates in our group, use your GARDIAN lasers to deal with incoming one-man crafts, leave enemy ships to us_" ordered captain of SSV Berlin as it maneuvered towards one of Turian cruisers and fired its mass accelerators at it. 4 rounds flew at fraction of light speed and impacted on cruiser kinetic barrier. The barrier held, but it bought time for the Human flotilla to get past it and engage dreadnought. Just to be sure about cruiser The Berlin fired its broadside mass accelerators at it, each of its 22 guns fired 3 rounds, the resulting barrage collapsed the Turian cruiser's kinetic barrier, allowing SSV Neretva to destroy it using their disruptor torpedoes.

It was then that the Turian dreadnought opened fire with its 4 mass accelerators and destroyed SSV Kursk with its barrage. Remaining 5 frigates split and attacked at knife range where dreadnoughts were defenseless and had to rely on its escort for protection. The purpose behind the knife attack however, was more of a distraction while remaining pairs of fighters fired their nuclear missiles against dreadnought. In order to provide confusion for Turian GARDIAN lasers those fighters who survived, launch their disruptor torpedoes. System Alliance nuclear weapons explode, creating several smaller suns in middle of Turian fleet. Nuclear radiation simply bypasses dreadnought kinetic barriers, killing its crew, while at the same time EMP unleashed from nuclear impact caused dreadnought systems to go crazy and shut down, rendering it dead in space.

_XXXXX_

"_Lieutenant, what's the status on our assault?_"

"_Sir, we lost 4 frigates and a cruiser, 76% of single manned ships are lost._"

"_And status on Turian fleet?_"

"_Our assault disabled their dreadnought and destroyed 3 frigates and 2 cruisers while nuclear explosions destroyed almost 89% of Turian single manned ship_s"

"_So in overall we still have advantage compared to Turians_"

"_Admiral I suggest that we try to evacuate our population from the planet before Turian reinforcements arrive"_ spoke one of CIC officers "_Our forces have gathered at the mass relay leading to the Turian world Magna, they will be unable to provide support for Eden Prime at this time."_

"_So this is how it will be then_" spoke Hackett and sighed as he sat down on his chair "_Very well then, launch all Kodiaks from Da Vinci and our escort. Have our frigates pull back from Turian fleet while cruisers provide covering fire_"

"_Yes sir!_"

"_Admiral, Turian fleet is retreating through the relay, I...I think we won!_" spoke navigation officer.

"_I can confirm that, all Turian ships except dreadnought have disengaged from fighting and retreated_" addressed CIC officer to admiral Hackett

"_That's good news, but I doubt, that they retreated for good. In any case, this gives us time to evacuate civilians_" Hackett addressed the CIC crew.

Alliance fleet regrouped and in next couple hours managed to evacuate almost 80% of Eden Prime population. Due to the carrier's large size most of Eden's colonists have been moved to Da Vinci. As Kodiak shuttles continue to transporting colonists, admiral Hackett was in the communication room, reporting to Alliance HQ.

_XXXXX_

"_So, the initial assault on Eden Prime has been repelled, and Turians have lost one of their dreadnoughts thanks to nuclear missiles. Tell me admiral, is there any chance we could salvage it? It would be good to get another heavy hitter and perhaps some, intelligence on enemy movement._" Spoke one of fleet admirals

"_Sadly, it's impossible at the moment, our scanning shows that level of radiation will be lethal for any human without hazard suit, which we don't have any available at the moment_" replied Hackett and show them the needed information. Another fleet admiral waved his hand and ordered "_In that case you should do your best to destroy it before Turians can recover it_" Hackett nodded to show that he understands the order "_Tell me admiral, how is the colony evacuation that you issued?_"

"_Last Kodiaks are just approaching us, we will be ready to evacuate them in about 10 minutes. May I ask why you ask this sir?_"

"_We are preparing to attack Turian world Magna, where, as you know, Turians build, re-arm and re-fit stations for their fleets and the information provided by Cerberus suggests, that the Turian fleet there is small in size._" Hackett took all this in consideration and after a while he spoke "_Is this information reliable? This war did start because Cerberus used freighters loaded with nukes against Turian 3rd legion_"

It was an old male voice that replied to this "_Cerberus methods may be, "cowardly and dishonored" as Turian propaganda proclaims it to be, but their spy network rivals, if not even surpass, that of the Salarian Special Tasks Group. Therefor, _I am_ personally confident about their information_" same voice then coughed and continued "_I will personally lead this operation with 5th scout fleet with support from 3 Cerberus cruisers._" Before Hackett could respond, he noticed a flashing light on his data pad. "_If you excuse me, admirals_" he turned his back to HQ and check recently received data. After reviewing it he then once again faced them

"_I just received report that combined force of Turians and Batarians just arrived, please excuse me_" was last thing he said to the gathering admirals and walked outside of communication room. The moment he walked in CIC he was greeted by one of CIC officers who said "_Admiral, were facing a force made out of 34 frigates, 8 cruisers and 3 dreadnoughts, but once again, no carriers detected._"

Hackett shake his head in dismay. "_Why 3 of them?_" He thought to himself "_Eden Prime is agricultural world, it has no industry or anything of strategic value_"

"_Lieutenant, tell me, do Batarians have larger amount of ships in this fleet?_" CIC Lieutenant went over the data provided by scanning and replied "_Admiral, 2 dreadnoughts are indeed Batarian along with 20 frigates, the rest are Turian_"

"_I see, Batarians are hoping to gather slaves, if Intel is correct_" was Hackett thought once again and replied "_Thanks son_". He then focused on the star map and evaluated his position and a possible course of action. It was almost a routine deployment for both of races. While Turians guarded the mass relay, thus preventing Alliance fleet from escaping through it, Batarians on launch attacks on the colony itself. It was in their nature to use frigates as troop transports as well as warships. For now it seems like both fleets are either ignoring or so far did not notice the Alliance fleet. And Hackett is now planning to make them regret that.

"_Lieutenant, tell me that dreadnought is rigged to explode_"

"_Admiral?_"

"_Is the Turian dreadnought that we crippled in first battle rigged to explode or is it not?_"

"_Sir, hold on I need to check it_"

"_Then do so already!_" ordered Hackett with slight trace of anger in his voice. It took lieutenant several minutes to respond to his order "_Admiral, we managed to put a drone inside one of dreadnought hangars. It carries 4, 20 kiloton bombs, the same we put on heavy fighters,…_"

"_I assume it has remote detonation?_"

"_No admiral, it has a timer set to explode in about an hour or so, why?_"

"_Because lieutenant, that ship may actually help us escape now,…_" begin Hackett to explain his plan when he was interrupted by CIC officer "_Admiral, our Kodiaks are attacked by Batarian fighters, they are going down fast!_"

"_Send whatever fighters and interceptors we have left to save as many as we can!_" ordered Hackett and turned back to the map. Several new blue dots appeared on tactical map and raced against Kodiaks and Batarians "_Sir, we lost too many fighters in the first battle, we can't save them all!_"

"_I am aware of this lieutenant, now tell me, are Turians trying to salvage their crippled dreadnought?_" asked Hackett almost annoyed. "_And if they are, can we set the bomb to explode early?_" CIC lieutenant, now getting general idea what admiral plan is replies "_Sir, I think that we can change hour setting to 90 seconds_" Hackett nodded in approval and turned to see what will happen. The dreadnought was relatively close to the mass relay, so now that the Turian forces have arrived they are relatively close to it. He grinned as he noticed the new dreadnought trying to dock with the other one. "_Update timer on bombs_"

"_Admiral, what if they discover it before it detonates?_" asked female CIC officer as she updated the timer on the drone carrying the nuclear weapons. "_The radiation from the heavy fighter attack should scramble their scanners and given that its only 90 seconds before it blows up, they won't know about it until it's too late for them_"

"_Admiral, 60 seconds left_" spoke the Lieutenant as he watched the time counting down and waiting nervously "_Surviving Kodiaks have docked with the fleet, there is about 28% of local garrison trapped on planet surface, I'm sorry, we couldn't save more admiral_"

"_This is war, people die and we need to focus our attention to those we can save_"

"_30 seconds_"

"_Have the fleet ready to make a small FLT jump towards the mass relay and be ready to plot course out of the system_"

"_10 seconds_"

"_Fleet wide FTL jump calculated_"

"_5,...4,…3,…2,…1,…_"

_XXXXX_

As soon as the lieutenant said one, the crippled dreadnought exploded from the inside out. All 4 nuclear bombs exploded at once turning it into the biggest fragmentation grenade known to the Alliance military. Debris of the once proud and mighty ship hit its sister ship. Because they were docked together it was hit at high speed close enough for kinetic barriers not to activate. Multiple impacts forced the dreadnought's hull to fracture and collapse, venting artificial atmosphere along with Turian crew into cold vacuum of space.

Admiral Hackett counted on this and on that the Turians would focus on their damaged flagship and not on human fleet escaping.

"_Fleet wide order, every alliance ship, jump on my signal... MARK!_" ordered admiral Hackett to the ships under his command. A few moments later the entire surviving 8th fleet jumped into the middle of the Turian flotilla. Few moments after they jumped, a volley of disruptor torpedoes and broadside mass accelerators hit the stunned cruisers, destroying 6 of them. However this short FTL jumped caused frigates SSV Kursk to collide with cruiser SSV Berlin. The collision took out both ships, thus further weakening the already weakened 8th fleet. It took the Alliance V.I. few moments to register that, and only 12 seconds to make correction course on the mass relay and then with these corrections, they fled from the system towards the nearest Alliance controlled system.


	2. Chapter 2

**I want to prevent this story "curb-stomp fest" for the UNSC against the races of Mass Effect. I hope you can respect this. SO I hope you can answer these 4 questions.**

**1)** _What do you want to see in chapter 3 and from whose point of view?_

**2)** _How long chapters would you prefer, shorter or longer than 1 and 2? (First one is 7 pages and this one is 9 pages long)_

**3)** _What time difference between chapters would be frequent enough? (Example once a week, twice per month,…etc)_

**4) **_Would you prefer to see more combat or non combat focused story?_**  
><strong>

* * *

><p><strong>Date: January 16, 2164<strong>

**Location: New Earth, System Alliance Military High command**

"_So, mister illusive man, you are the leader of Cerberus, is that correct?_" spoke the female admiral among the group of five individuals. The room, in which they were sitting in, however had seats for nine people.

In the middle of the room was a holographic projection of a human male with gray hair and unusual cyan eyes, they looked almost like they were synthetic instead of biological. The illusive man drew a sweet Williams cigar, light it and puffed smoke "_I'm THE Illusive Man and yes, I am leader of Cerberus_" The Illusive Man then pressed on a tab that he was holding and a blueprint of a ship appeared on the holographic projection instead of him "_As you know, our combined raid on the Turian world Magna was a success_"

"_What exactly does this blueprint have to do with Magna raid?_"

"_During the raid, Admiral McNatt, a Cerberus fire team managed to infiltrate the Magna shipyards. It was there, that we recovered specs on the new Volus dreadnought_"

"_Volus? I was not aware that they have dreadnoughts, our reports state that they rely on bombing fleet, with which they support allied ground troop_s" said the female admiral who spoke first. "_And even if they do build dreadnoughts, why should we worry? They are not in war with us like Turians or Batarians are._"

"_This particular dreadnought class is designed to replace the Turian Menae-class dreadnought._" The picture of the Volus dreadnought then zoomed on its weaponry "_As you can, clearly, see, its main mass accelerator gun is much more powerful than any other capital ship weapon, with exception of the Destiny Ascension, but not by much_" The image then zoomed out and focused on the dreadnought's broadside weapons "_But that's not all, this type of dreadnought has its broadside mass accelerators build on same specs as the main gun_"

"_This,…this is almost impossible to believe_" spoke the voice of the young male admiral "_The citadel council wouldn't simply sit back and watch, while the Volus are building kilometer long ships armed with weapons that can very well alter the balance of power in the known galaxy!_"

"_Ah, you must be admiral Seaborn, the new addition to the Alliance military leadership. Well, to answer your question, since the Volus technically are not member of the citadel, therefor they are not bound by the "Treaty of Farixen" and the one, who ordered the design for it, is one of the Turian specters_" answered the Illusive Man to Seaborn and tapped ash from his sweet William's cigar into ashtray.

"_And this Spectre wouldn't happen to be the same Spectre that exposed our Artificial Intelligence to the council_" spoke Seaborn once again "_Which I still can't believe that we actually made research for a sentient artificial intelligence and so far, no one told me where exactly we got one in the FIRST place!_"

"_That, admiral Seaborn is classified data, and you will not ask this question ever again, if you know what is good for you!_" spoke the elderly admiral, who thanks to age augmentation is almost 90 years old but still in service, easily making him the oldest member of System Alliance military.

"_Admiral Seaborn does state an interesting question, even Cerberus doesn't know this information, and we do rival Salarian STG group in intelligence gathering_" spoke the Illusive Man and continued "_But this is not the point of this meeting_"

"_The point of this meeting is that new dreadnought. Does it have a weakness that we can expose?_"

"_None that we can determine so far, however we know where they are building it and their defenses are,…surprisingly undermanned, considering what are they meant to defend_"

"_So, if we attack now, we could destroy it before it becomes a threat_"

"_Or admiral Seaborn, we capture it and use its weapons against our enemies_"

"_But at the same time, we need something to counter it_" spoke admiral McNatt as she took a closer look at the dreadnought weapons, all classified under codeword "Thanix cannon" and frowned "_I find it ironic that it carries same name than our rocket artillery we just start to deploy on the battlefield_"

"_It's quite possible that it's only a coincidence, or are you implying that we have a spy in our systems?_"

"_It won't hurt to release couple of virtual intelligence units to scan for any unregistered ones_" said The Illusive Man and changed the blueprint from "Thanix dreadnought" to the blueprint of a cannon "_This here, admirals, is a prototype of a Cerberus planetary defense cannon_" the image then zoomed in at cannon barrel "_It's designed to fire a 1000 kilogram heavy shell at 4% of light speed, and such, much faster and heavier round than those mounted on dreadnought class_"

"_The sheer power needed to perform this feat is so much, it would take almost as much Element Zero as to build a frigate wolf pack. How do you suggest we power it? And, because its only a defensive weapon, we cannot use it in any offensive!_" spoke admiral Seaborn with slight hint of anger in his voice "_It would be better, if we would somehow manage to mount this cannon on dreadnoughts for extra mobility and more versatility!_"

The Illusive Man only let out a long column of smoke from his mouth and replied "_If we would put it on a dreadnought, it would lose power after each shot, not to mention that the dreadnought would have to be almost 3 kilometer long, so with material needed to build this one, we could build three Alliance dreadnoughts. But if we put it on solid ground, it will use a ground based power plant to power up the cannon and fire it. This way we will save on Eezo_"

"_What would the rate of fire be? Did you have any theories on that?_" asked McNatt with clear curiosity and approval in her voice. Seaborn on other hand was nervously tapping on desk, clearly not thinking much about the cannon as a defensive weapon. The other two admirals, who remained quiet so far, also show interest on their faces. The elderly admiral however shows no interest to cannon at all, almost as if he didn't care about it.

"_Due to the weight and speed of the round, it has a slower recharge rate than other mass accelerator cannons. The only existing prototypes we built so far had a 27 second recharge before they fired another shell_"

"_So you tested it? On what?_" spoke McNatt once again as the Illusive Man switched to a video recording of the cannon opening fire and then focused on its target, a Batarian dreadnought with three cruiser escorts. The shell propelled at the speed of 12,000 km/s then impacted on the dreadnought. Its kinetic barriers flashed and were gone as fast as they appeared resulting in the dreadnought exploding. As a added bonus to that explosion, the cruisers which escorted it were also destroyed by wreckage following the massive ship explosion. There was a clear sign of amazement on Alliance admirals, even on admiral Seaborn as well as on the elderly admiral.

"_As you can see, these cannons can deliver devastating damage on their targets, as well those close to it. Our V.I.'s and engineers have calculated that it would take about 36 months to put one of these cannons on each human colony, I belive we should focus on building the defensive cannons on the planets that currently hold the most value to us._"

"_Tell me "Illusive Man", does this cannon have any nickname or codeword?_" asked Seaborn with a voice that hinted, he means it more as a joke than a serious question.

"_We simply dubbed it, "Reaper", since it will reap the aggressors against mankind_" replied the Illusive Man with a voice that shows both seriousness and humor in his voice at the same time.

_XXXXX_

**Date: February 2, 2164**

**Location: Citadel, embassies, council chambers**

The Asari councilor Tevos walked inside the chamber where both the Salarian and Turian councilors have been waiting for her. This chamber is bug free and Salarian virtual intelligence is always monitoring for any sign of espionage bugs.

"_Councilor Tevos, glad that you found some time to join us_" spoke Sparatus the Turian councilor. "_Now could you tell us what this meeting is about?_"

Councilor Tevos brought out a tablet and slide it towards Sparatus's side of the table "_This new type of dreadnought being develop for Turian military by Volus. Its size is over a kilometer, which is against the Treaty of Farixen and you know that perfectly well_"

Sparatus looked shocked at Tevos, clearly he did not expect her to know about it. The Salarian councilor picks up the tablet from the table and examines the specifications of the dreadnought. "_An interesting design. If this capital ship would be ever built - now that the council knows of it -, could easily become the mightiest ship inside council space. These "Magnetic-Hydrodynamic Weapons", codenamed "Thanix" are much stronger than mass accelerator weapons. Where did Turians learn of them?_"

"_That is a interesting question councilor Valern. I too would like to know that_" spoke councilor Tevos.

"_The design for Thanix was provided by Turian specter Arterius, where he got it I was not told_" admitted Sparatus and looked at Tevos "_We need this new Kwunu-class to fight the human System Alliance more effectively. They began to utilize prohibited nuclear weapons, and our kinetic barriers are neither able to protect the crew from its radiation, nor can it protect against electromagnetic pulse those weapons release upon detonation_"

"_This brings me to our second point of this meeting. The war against the humans has been raging on for almost four years. You destroyed or captured nine colonies and killed almost a million of human soldiers and decimated their fleet. But, you arent the only ones scoring, this war is not one sided. You yourself have taken high casualties. If my reports are correct you lost six colonies, and 16 dreadnoughts have been either destroyed or damaged beyond repairs. Councilor, this severely weakens not only the Turian Hierarchy but the citadel forces as well._"

"_And what do you propose we do councilor Tevos? Are we supposed to retreat and let the System Alliance win? That will most definitively make us look weak in the eyes of Terminus Systems_"

Councilor Valern then spoke "_The alternative would is rather simple, stop the war by achieving a peace treaty with the humans_"

Sparatus simply shook his head and spoke "_Impossible, we achieved peace after we first met humans and fought them, only to start fighting again three years later when we learned about their artificial intelligence and after their attack on our fleets with nuclear weapons!_"

"_This time, we would ensure that humans do not possess any weapons of mass destruction such as nuclear weapons as well as any A.I.s_" spoke Valern and was about to continue when they were interrupted by a beeping over their communicators "_Please councilor Valern, hold your thoughts_" spoke Tevos as she tapped on the table. On a small holographic projector an image of an asari assistant appeared and spoke. "_I apologize for the interruption councilors but the Batarian ambassador would like to speak with you as soon as you are able, its about something important, I'm sorry, but he did not specify what exactly he would like to talk about_"

"_Thank you Esara, tell him we will see him once we are done with our meeting_" spoke councilor Tevos and as soon as Esara bow in respect she cut the feed and turned to Valern "_Please continue councilor Valern_"

He coughed once and spoke "_This time we ensure that peace would last by deploying specters to safely destroy and, or, disable any A.I's they would locate. Naturally we won't tell them about this. Conditions for surrender would be …basic_"

"_Humans won't accept it, not again_"

"_We will give them this chance to end the conflict peacefully, why do you think they would not accept it?_"

"_Because the Batarians, our allies, are in war against the humans, and have taken unspecified number of colonists as slaves, and the humans know that_"

"_Those four eyed idiots, they know that we are against slavery and they are still practicing it_" exclaimed councilor Tevos with slight detection of anger in her usually calm voice"_We would need to somehow get the Batarians to free them_"

"_Perhaps the opportunity that we are presented now could not be better_" suggests Valern as he and Sparatus stood up and walked outside of council chamber, leaving the Asari councilor alone to make a call of her own.

**Date: January 12, 2164**

**Location: SSV Thermopylae, Unknown region of space**

The captain of the SSV Thermopylae, Estella Zepeda, woke up to a sign of beeping from her personal terminal in the captain's cabin. She got up and stretched as she walked towards her terminal and opened the message she received.

"System Alliance HQ to SSV Thermopylae.

Eden Prime has fallen to the enemy at 9th of January 2164

Alliance forces managed to evacuate all colonists from the planet surface. However reports state that two platoons of marines are stranded on the planet. Admiral McNatt orders are to head out there and attempt a rescue mission"

Estella murmured something to herself, put on her uniform and headed towards the elevator that took her down to the bridge.

"_Greetings captain_" saluted one of stationed marines. Estella returned the salute and walked past him towards the Thermopylae pilot. "_Hey cap, what's new today?_"

"_We got ordered by admiral McNatt to scout Eden Prime as it was conquered by the enemy three days ago_"

"_Ouch, that sucks man …hey cap, don't you have family on EP?_"

"_I do Tony, I do, now plot a course to Eden prime relay_"

"_Aye aye cap_"

SSV Thermopylae is a sister ship to the SSV Normandy, designed for "deep scouting" into hostile zones thanks to its state of the art stealth technology powered by an experimental drive core being developed by Cerberus. In addition to the Normandy weapons, the Thermopylae has a pair of nuclear mine layers, making her armament heavier than its sister ship. Those mine layers are able to deploy 14 mines each, thus making Thermopylae capable of setting up ambushes unlike her sister ship.

Her pilot, Tony Esprey, took her toward the relay and had the ship born V.I. to calculate the course correction for the mass relay jump. Once they reached the required distance the relay activated and once V.I. sent the desired coordinates the relay accelerated the small ship at speed a much faster than any ship can achieve on its own. The journey took several minutes. As soon as they jumped into Eden Prime system, the Thermopylae activated its stealth system, thus hiding from any hostile forces in the system.

"_Esprey, give me status report_" spoke captain Estella from her com as she observe the debris field around the Eden prime that marked the battle which took place here three short days ago. Estella took some comfort in her hearth, knowing that Turians didn't take this planet without a fight. A clear testament to that was a wreckage of once proud and might Turian dreadnought close to the relay. In fact the Thermopylae nearly crashed into it when they arrived.

"_Our scan determined that most of hostile forces in system are Batarians, counting 13 frigates and dreadnought, plus 9 freighters. Turians only have 3 frigates and a carrier is keeping a perimeter around EP. Batarians are landing troops on the planet itself_"

Estella angrily spat "_Damn Batarians, this is most likely another of their attempt for "merchandise"_"

"_Orders captain?_"

"_Deploy 12 mines behind the orbiting moon, and then start a system wide scan to get their attention for long enough for them to reach our location_" ordered Estella from her position on bridge to the Thermopylae crew.

"_Aye captain_" was heard from various crewmembers and Estelle continued "_After mines detonate make top speed towards the Eden Prime in attempt to rescue stranded Alliance marines_"

On her orders, the SSV Thermopylae moved from the relay towards the nearby moon. Upon arrival Thermopylae deployed 12, 20 kiloton mines and scattered them to make them harder to detect until it's too late.

"_Captain_" came voice from Esprey as they deployed the last mine "_I did the system scan, we have all Batarian frigates heading our way, but the dreadnought stayed at its position_"

"_It would be too good if they send dreadnought to investigate as well_"

"_There is more captain, scanning also revealed the position of an alliance cruiser that landed on Arcadia. Registry recognizes it as the SSV Berlin!_"

"_How is that possible? Report states that it was destroyed when a frigate, SSV Kurks, collided with it during in system FTL jump!_"

"_I don't know captain, scanning revealed that it's without any Eezo, we cannot salvage it at the time and on unrelated note, Batarian frigates are 40,000 km away from us, now it's as good time as it can be_"

"_Top speed towards Eden Prime, we have soldiers to save!_" spoke Captain Estella as SSV Thermopylae flew out of moon cover and made its way towards Eden Prime. Just as it cleared the moon cover the 13 Batarian frigates approached the minefield. SSV Thermopylae weapon officer monitored this from a terminal. When they arrived at the minefield, the officer activated the mines. Being small in size, mixed along with the asteroids and have almost no Eezo, they managed to attach themselves onto Batarian frigates before they realized what happened. Only a few seconds later all of them exploded, whipping out entire frigate fleet. However that was only a secondary objective of Estella. The primary objective is to provide a distraction for Thermopylae to land onto planet surface and save stranded marines.

"_Captain, the minefield tactic was a success, all 13 frigates destroyed, and on top of that, the dreadnought is accelerating to location behind the moon, to investigate what happen if my guess is correct. We now have a clear to land, since Turian patrol is on the other side of the planet_"

"_Contact the surviving marines and tell them we are coming for them_"

"_Already on it captain_"

The Thermopylae, when it reached orbit, shut down its kinetic barriers in order to land on planet directly due to shortage of any Kodiaks on board. Esprey, once he received the location for marine extraction, guided the stealth frigate towards a building ravaged by airstrikes and Batarian assault. Esprey could make out Batarian bodies as well as debris of Turian fighters shot down by anti-air weapons.

"_Captain, whoever has been holding this building must have been one hell of a leader, just look at all the corpses of four-eyes who tried to seize it_" spoke Esprey over com to Estella and after witnessing the battlefield herself she replied "_It's quite possible that _four-eyes_ priority was to capture slaves, not to kill marines_"

"_Whatever the case was, it still had to be some intense fight_"

"_Captain, I have visual on LZ. We have Turian tank pinning down Alliance marines!_"

"_Esprey, do your thing, weapon chief, get rid of that tank with GARDIANs!_" ordered Estella and held onto the iron fence around the bridge. A few moments later the Thermopylae was above LZ and received small arms fire from the hostile ground forces as a greeting. This fire barely scratched Thermopylae's armor. It was then that Turian tank turned its turret to open fire on it. Its cannon were capable of blowing a hole in the stealth frigate's armor. Thermopylae however was faster and thanks to her GARDIAN she destroyed the tank in a 3 shots, the first one to bring down its barrier defense, the second one to melt away a portion of the armor, and the third one to hit cannon shell storage, resulting in an explosion that destroyed the tank.

"_Lower the ramp, and have our marine squad provide covering fire for EP marines!_" gave Estelle another order as Thermopylae lowered its ramp, allowing surviving Alliance platoon to evacuate under covering fire of both Thermopylae marines with avenger rifles as well as GARDIAN turrets. Any Batarian hit by GARDIAN laser was instantly killed while marines with rifles managed to force them to stay in cover.

"_Everyone is on board, now Esprey, get us out here!_"

"_Got it captain!_"

"_Captain, we have Turian fighter squadron directly above us. They are diving!_"

"_Fire everything we have at them, do not, I repeat DO NOT let them open fire with disruptor torpedoes!_"

Turian pilots must have an overwhelming wish to join the spirits, since not only that they were diving at Thermopylae at high speed they were in tight formation of only a few feet in between them. This allowed Thermopylae GARDIAN lasers to easily acquire target and quick barrage of lasers engulfed 7 Turian fighters, destroying them in a mere one or two shots.

"_Fighters dealt with, but now those crazy birds know were here, we have cruisers waiting for us in orbit!_"

"_Get those barriers online and AS soon as we CAN jump to FLT! No matter where, just JUMP!_"

When the Alliance ship closed distance towards the cruisers, they begun to align their broadside magnetic accelerators in order to open fire. The amount of firepower that was fired at would easily destroy the stealth frigate. But to Estelle surprise, only one cruiser opened fire at them, and even then it was fired only a second before Thermopylae kinetic barriers were once again online. Thermopylae was hit only twice, but those two hits shock it violently and left a gaping hole in middle of its armor. The remaining fire was stopped by her kinetic barrier, but it was quickly weakening under sustained assault. They did however manage to hold long enough for Thermopylae to make a FTL jump outside the system.

"_Phew, I didn't think that we were going to make it there, for some moments_" admitted Esprey as he whipped out sweet from his forehead "_I wonder if joker has missions this exiting_"

"_Captain, sergeant Mike Corp wants to have a word with you_" said an alliance marine, stationed on Thermopylae, who walked up to Estelle "_Thanks, I'll spoke to him ASAP_" replied Estelle and walked to the elevator which she then took down to the hangar bay. Inside she noticed about 30 marines, all which had their blue armor dented and damaged in multiple different ways. She spotted Sergeant Mike, which wasn't exactly hard considering that he was the only one without a helmet. Instead he had a barrette on his head. She walked to him and saluted "_Sergeant Mike Corp? I'm Captain Estelle Zepeda, captain of SSV Thermopylae_". The marine nodded and returned the salute "_Thank you captain Estelle, if you hadn't come along, we would have most likely be killed or worse_"

He spoke with someone who hasn't sleep for a whole week and had a daily dosage of coffee measured in gallons. "_If you don't mind me asking sergeant, why was that bunker spared by the enemy? The other bunkers were destroyed if our V.I. report is correct_"

"_That is because, it was not a bunker at all, it was a research station_"

"_What were you researching?_"

"_I'm not a scientist ma'am, but from what I heard, it was to be a biological weapon of some sort_"

"_And now the enemy has it?_"

"_No ma'am, I had my people to scout the facility for it, we found nothing other than a picture of alien, thing_" he then brought out the picture he was talking about and show it to Estelle. The thing on it was about a feet tall, it didn't have a feet or arms. Instead it had tentacle like things on it. The whole thing looked rather discussing, but in terms of threat, it was questionable. "_I take it that scientist how were working on this …bug were evacuated?_" Mike nodded in agreement and replied "_They were among the first one to get evacuated_"

"_Thank you sergeant, we're heading to Terra now, so I suggest you and your men get some rest, I suspect you will be asked several interesting questions about this thing._"

"_I have no doubts about it ma'am, but yeah, you re right we earned some sleep_"

**Date: January 12, 2164**

**Location: Eden Prime, Alliance bunker, biological weapon facility**

Now that Alliance marines were out of the picture, the Batarians were raiding the facility for anything that could bring them some extra credit. Turians on other hand were recording what little information they could find about the experiments the Alliance scientist were working on.

Several Batarian soldiers opened a box which contained several glassy pods. Inside those pods there was a weird liquid. Convinced that inside of it is nothing of value they mostly throw it away or shattered it just for fun to smash something. What they don't know about those pods was that, it contained something alive in it. Now that Batarians have broken the pod in which it was contained they released it and thus signed their death.

Only an hour later, Turians couldn't contact any Batarian that was in the room in which they found the pods with weird liquid in it. All they heard was static and strange voices. Convinced that something was wrong and/or that Batarians got infected from alliance biological weapon, they deployed a squad in hazmat armor to investigate. They found nothing but blood on the floor and walls. It didn't take long for Turians to find out what happened to them. Only one Turian managed to come back, with armor badly damaged and too terrified to speak. In response to that, they sealed the doors, hoping that whatever the Batarians have released, will not spread.


	3. Chapter 3

**This chapter may be disappointing some of people who read it. I was planing to add more stuff to it, but if I added all that I wanted to add in, it would easily be too long for "casual" readers to read. It still might be.**

* * *

><p><strong>Date: March 21, 2706<strong>

**Location: UNSC controlled space, outer colonies**

In a black void of space, three ships were moving towards a planet, just past an asteroid field. The ships in group are a pair of Longsword Mk.2-class escort fighters and a Colony-class freighter. They were flying in standard formation, if it could be called one. The freighter in middle, while both longsword escorts, took positions on the sides of the freighter.

The longsword Mk 2-class has been designed for long range escort/patrol and scouting operations. It is 24 meters longer, than the one being used in Great War. Its armament has been greatly improved for its class and consists of gauss cannon, a pair of heavy 80 mm rotary cannons and 2 micro archer missile pods with 36 missiles inside of each of them. For defense it has both energy shield and pulse laser point defense for missile defense. Furthermore, this class is outfitted with forerunner slipspace engine, allowing it to travel system to system on its own, with no need of carrier or other ships.

The colony class freighter has been designed in years after the Great War, solely for transporting large amount of materials needed for rebuilding process. To achieve this, the colony-class is four times larger than older freighter ships, easily the side of destroyer-class warship. Due to the fact that there were many covenant loyalists, who still believe that halo activation would bring them to great journey and increasing amount of Kig-yar pirates, the colony-class also carries an impressive array of armament for its type. While all colony-classes have 50 or 80 mm point defense guns or even a magnetic accelerator cannon turret, some owners of colony-class freighters put on covenant weapons, while in some cases they even have magnetic accelerator cannon provided from black market. It defensive measurements consist primarily of point defense guns operated by ship bound A.I. and energy shield, power of which is equal to covenant destroyer.

However, there was something different about this certain freighter. It was in fact a UNSC Destroyer, the Dawn of War. Equipped with a hologram prototype technology designed by ONI, it now searches for sign of pirates that raided several shipments of material meant for joint colony between the mankind, elites and the brutes. Since the raids happen in space that the UNSC controls, and thus the Elite and Brute Empires are not allowed investigating them. The Dawn of War is a heavy destroyer, meaning it has thicker armor and shield, rivaling those of a light cruiser.

The Dawns escort longswords are remote controlled, since they will most likely be first ones to be attacked by pirates. The fake freighter image was made without any weapons that could harm a capital ship, to make it more appealing target for raiding. This is what Dawn captain, Victor Angelos is planning on. As soon as they would, the Dawn would utilize its electromagnetic pulse generator to disable and if possible capture the pirate ship. To achieve this, the Dawn has a platoon of Hell jumpers and a company of UNSC marines. He even managed to get a fire team of Spartan IV, lead by near mythical Spartan 2.

"_Captain, we are at the location where pirate raids are most common_" spoke the Dawn navigation officer, Ensign Adam Hirano.

"_Thank you Ensign Hirano, is the ship imitator still working at full strength?_" The ship imitator is how the crew of The Dawn referred to ONI ship hologram technology, given that it does not have any official name. "_Captain, as you with no doubly already know, ONI has already tested it against both the elite and the brute sensors. It fooled both of them into thinking that our fake signature and image is real_" spoke ONI operative send on board the Dawn.

"_Thank you for this already knows information, Major Rebeca Chung, but what I need to know is how it operates now_" replied captain Angelos and the Dawns A.I speak "_Ship imitator works just as planned, pirates shouldn't be able to detect the Dawn of War under our holographic cover._"

"_Thank you Diana that is what I wanted to know_"

"_Captain, were at point where most attacks occulted, I recommend we set longswords scans to active scan_" recommended The Dawn weapon officer, Lieutenant Julia Bearden. "_Agreed, Diana, have longswords perform an active scan_"

"_Scanning, longswords so far only things picking up on them are space debris and rocks. No trace of pirates detected, human or Elite or any other type of ship…hang on….I got something_"

It was then that longsword on the port side of the "freighter" took direct hit from a plasma turret. Diana had the starboard longsword performing maneuvers that a human pilot would do at this scenario. A second shot came from above the freighter and impacted the port longsword, destroying it.

After its escort was eliminated, then the attacked had revealed itself. The attacker turned out to be a CCS-class battle cruiser that covenant utilized during the Great War. The massive purple ship then moved above the Dawn and launch docking clamps. They however did not reach the desired effect, as they simply bounce of the Dawn's shield.

"_Gothca_" proclaimed Captain Angelos as shields flared when docking clams hit them "_Diana, EMP now!_" A blue colored bubble sprung from the Dawn of war and engulfed the attacking CCS battlecruiser. The electromagnetic pulse engulfed the massive covenant ship and took away its power from it. Now it just drifts in space harmlessly.

"_Well Done Diana_" congratulates Angelos to the Dawns AI. He then turned on comlink and spoke "_Sergeant White, as soon as docking tubes are attached, I want you and your men on that ship, on the double!_"

_XXXXX_

"_Sir Yes sir, you heard him helljumpers, show those pirates when the UNSC shock troopers are made of!_" spoke sergeant white to his helljumpers as they readied their gear. The ODST gear now consisted of similar weapons that their ancestors used during the Great War. The only real improvement is that their new type of battle rifles now fired bullets in a similar fashion that their Magnetic Accelerator Cannons do on board their ships. This upgrade slowed their rate of fire for a little, but in turn it gave them greater firepower needed to breach covenant shield and much greater range plus accuracy.

Theirs sidearms, include either SMG or Magnum pistol. SMG did not get the same upgrade that the battle rifle got, instead their upgrade focused on providing same rate of fire as well as higher damage. Pistols however had similar upgrade to battle rifle only much smaller in scale.

Their armor received upgrade, and is now as durable as Mjolnir mark 5, except that it's scaled down so that non-augmented personal can use it. At the same time, it has double layer of energy shield, meaning that while enemy may breach first one, the second one will kick in until the first one is recharged. It should be noted that second one is weaker than first one. However the main advantage is that it provides its user faster reflexes.

A team of nine ODST, lead by Spartan IV gathered around each three of docking tubes. Those teams objectives are to clean the boarding area of any hostiles before marine reinforces would arrive. Marines are armed with either assault rifles or shotguns. Assault rifle has same upgrades like SMG has, faster rate of fire, greater damage and little to no recoil. Shotgun on other hand has slightly increased range. The main focus on shotgun upgrade is stopping and penetration power.

As soon as docking tube open, the ODST teams storm into battlecruiser. They were meet by a hail of plasma fire from pistols and rifles. The Spartans at front had to fortify their shields in order to repel the steam of plasma and allow the ODST behind them to open fire while the IVs slowly advance forward. The enemy that they were facing was comprised of Unggoy, Kig-yar and a few Jiralhanae leading them. Unggoys were firering either plasma pistols or needlers. The Kig-yar too used plasma pistols in combination with energy shields, as well as plasma carbines and occasionally beams rifles. Their leaders, the Jiralhanae mostly utilized their own version of plasma rifles or their trademark weapon, the bruteshot.

The Spartan IV mark VIII Mjolnir armor, allow them to "fortify" their shields for almost unlimited amount of time. This fortified mode makes energy shields incredibly thick, preventing even the heaviest weapons from penetrating them, thus making them practically invincible soldiers on the battlefield. The down sides of this however, is that while in fortified mode, the Spartan cannot run or move very fast and due to the fact it only effects the front of the armor, the back of Spartan is still vulnerable, thus an ally covering Spartan six is required.

"_Kevin, brute, 12 o'clock high!_" yelled an ODST to his teammate behind him. The ODST, now know as Kevin took aim with his battle rifle and fired. He was rewarded with a Jiralhanae scream as trio of bullets hit him in the chest, puncturing its armor and shattering inside his body. "_Good call Mark, get me another target!_" The ODST Mark took cover behind Spartan IV, who was firering her specialized weapon, the M9 Grindell/Galilean Nonlinear Rifle, or better known, the Spartan gun. It was for all its purpose a Spartan laser that was converted into an assault rifle. That meant, it has greater rate of fire and larger batteries that allow it for more shots. That also meant its much weaker then M6 Grindell/Galilean Nonlinear Rifle, but it was never indented to take on armored tanks, but if the need requires for just that, the M9 laser can be charged to fire stronger shots, to take out targets with heavy armor, such as hunters.

_"Heavy grunt pair, 9 o'clock, methane gas canisters!_" The expressions "heavy grunt" meant that Unggoy to which Mark was referring to either carried a heavy weapon, such as fuel rod cannon, or they were setting up/mounting a shade turret. An acknowledgment light winked on his HUD and then an explosion was heard, quickly followed by flash or light that signified the methane tanks have exploded. Mark was just about to congratulate Kevin on excellent shot when he noticed that he was focusing on Kig-yar pair. It wasn't an ODST who took a shot, it was the Spartan IV.

"_All teams, be advised, I gained control of battlecruiser life support, make sure you have your helmets on, I will be shutting it down in 5…4….3…2…1_" spoke disembodied voice of a woman over Mark ear peace. It was the Dawns artificial intelligence, Diana. As she finished her countdown, the Kig-yar and the Jiralhanae started gasping for air that was no longer there for them to breathe. That only left the Unggoy who were still a threat to them, since they were breathing methane inside their tanks, strapped to their backs. When they witness their comrades and leaders chocking and gasping for air, they panic and most of them run around or retreated deeper into the ship. Those that remained were cut down by concentrated fire of both ODST and their Spartan leader.

"_Dawn? This is Sergeant White of strike team 1, hostile at our end has been neutralized_" spoke ODST officer, with a white hand painted onto of his helmet. He was on the right side of Spartan IV who was providing cover with her shields.

"_This is Squad leader Cox, of strike team 2, hostile eliminated, we do however have two men wounded, requesting retrieval and reinforcement_s"

"_Squad leader Mitchell reporting, all hostile either dead or retreating_"

"_Copy that team leaders, I'm restoring life support to UNSC controlled parts of the ship_" spoke Dawns AI and true to her words, a moment later fresh air filled the captured compartment. "_Be advised boarding parties, enemy presence is still large inside the ship, I'm counting almost a 1000 Unggoy and about 80 Sangheili still alive on the ship. I was unable to deactivate life support on Ship Bridge, and sensors there have been disabled, so I do not know what is in there._"

"_Roger that, we will advance as soon as marine reinforcements arrive, sergeant white out_"

_XXXXX_

Back on the Dawn, captain Angelos monitored the advance of his forces in capturing the ship. Diana decision to shut down life support when she got the chance, greatly reduced the battlecruiser crew number, and there for reducing chances for casualties on human side. However it also reduced the chances for ODST or Spartans to capture prisoners. This is what mostly bothered the ONI operative on board his ship.

As he access the schematic on the battlecruiser they were boarding and then bringing it onto tactical display map he called out "_Diana, progress report_" For the first time their trap has been sprung, the AI revealed itself on pedaster nearby. She appeared as a young woman of athletic build and wore a very short tunic. She was holding a bow in her right hand and had a quiver mounted other shoulders.

"_Strike team 1 suffered no casualties and is on their way towards the reactor room_" a holographic display of Team 1 members biosigns appeared on display map as well as a marked their current position. "_Team 2 has two ODST have been critically wounded, due to by far largest resistance encountered so far, by bruteshot and have transported them back onto Dawn_" a display of team 2 biosigns appeared next to team ones and Diana then isolated the wounded biosigns "_Chances for wounded ODST to survive the necessary surgery are 85%. I have already selected their replacements from the ODST still in reserve. Once back to full strength Team 2 will proceed towards their objective, the hangar_" After marking their position on tactical map she then presented the biosigns of team 3 "_Team 3 has no casualties as the resistance they encountered was relatively light, a squad of Unggoy and a Jiralhanae leading them. They are now on their way towards the brig, in case if there are any prisoners there._" As she marked their position on the tactical map she continued "_I could not access the sensors in the brig, so I d not know if there is anyone in there, as a precaution I chose not to shot down the life support inside the brig_"

"_So all in all we are making good progress_" spoke captain and turned to view he could see from the bridge.

"_If you count that there may be no survivors to question_" remarked Major Chung and turned her attention to a lone dot close to the battle cruiser bridge. "_And who may that be captain?_" Angelos turned and look at the dot major was referring to "_That major, is the David-036, Spartan 2, and he is getting your prisoners major, don't you worry about it._"

_XXXXX_

Spartan 036 had not participated in initial boarding action. Instead he was ordered by the captain to proceed on his own. He received a pair of detonators, with enough power needed to breach battlecruiser outer hull, which he achieved during the chaos ensued by the boarding action. After he took cover behind one of disabled plasma turret he activated the trigger, waited for debris to be washed into space harmlessly and went inside. Inside he encountered no resistance, which wasn't at all surprising, consider ring that he blow up a hole in ship hull, so whoever or whatever was inside this corridor was not freezing in cold vacuum of space. "_This is David-036, I'm inside_"

"_Copy that Spartan, I infiltrated the battlecruiser system, they have limited protection against me, I now have full control of the ship_" spoke Diana over his com and placed a marker on his HUD "_The bride is located not far from your location, however be advised, I know nothing of what is in inside, you may face a hunter pair_"

"_Roger that, Spartan out_" with that said, he broke the com link with Diana and unsung his suppressed SMG. It didn't matter much that the SMG was silenced now, since the aliens on board already know that they were attacked, however he took it more because of sentimental value and above all else, it was useful in both close combat due to its high rate of fire and it was accurate enough to score critical hits in exposed armor of Jiralhanae even when on the move. He also carried a special version of ODST battle rifle, the special part being the bullets filled with special foam that once impact on target they lock target armor, rendering it impossible to move, but first target shields must be taken out for this bullets to have the desired effect. Next he had a pair of fragmentation and a pair of stick grenades, and finally, his favorite weapon, the new type of Sangheili plasma sword he managed to trade in last time he was on shore leave.

He slowly advanced along the corridors, keeping a close eye on his motion tracker. He heard Diana speaking of shutting down life supports on the ship and he felt how his armor automatically sealed itself to prevent air from escaping. His motion tracker then registers a pair of contact just up ahead. He sprinted forward and brought his weapon to bear, ready to fire on whomever or whatever was around the corner. As he turned around it, he saw a pair of Sangheili struggling to breathe. David pointed his weapon at each of them and fired quick bursts into each alien head. Both of them fell on the ground dead, with purple blood spraying his boots and the metal ground. David gave no more attention to dead aliens and continued forward. It didn't take him long for him to reach the doors that lead to the bridge. He then slowly opens them a little and looked inside. Luckily for him he spotted no silhouette that would gave out a hunter presence. That however does not mean they are not there.

He did however spotted a Sangheili sitting on gravity chair, which surprisingly still had power and disturbance in the air that signified a presence of a cloaked Sangheili nearby. He turned on his helmet visual enhancements that allow him to see cloaked Sangheili inside. As soon as he turned it on, trio of Sangheili wearing stealth armor were visible. David replaced his SMG for the battle rifle and knock on the door, twice

"_Knock knock, is there anyone inside? Cause if you are, I'm afraid I'll have to kill you_" This got the exact reaction he wanted. Doors open up and right in front of him the first stealth Sangheili raised its plasma blade, ready to stab him. Of course he didn't want that, so he fired quick bursts of bullets into shield-less armor. Bullets impacted and spread the purple foam on stealth armor, rendering it useless. The attacking Sangheili was no frozen like a statue so David just pushed it of the balance and onto the flood. He was then attacked by the second elite in stealth armor, only to receive bursts of bullets into its chest at close range. The second elite were also neutralized. This only left another stealth elite and the shipmaster. He quickly scanned the room, but didn't find the third one. With a corner of his eye he noticed nothing new on the motion detector. He did however felt someone grabbing his arm that holds the trigger and another one placing a sword on his neck. The third one somehow managed to sneak behind him and get a hold on him

David didn't hesitate and hit the elite with the back of his head. The elite roared in pain and before David could react, the elite cut his rifle in rage with his energy sword. This left the Spartan at a disadvantage, as his orders are to capture anyone on bridge alive and now he lost the weapon that allowed him to do so. So he did the only other thing he could. He grabs the remaining elite by his sword arm and twisted it. He could hear a faint sound of cracking sound coming from elite wrist and then the elite drop his sword. This allowed David with a chance needed to knock his opponent out with a punch in the face. The last stealth elite fall on the flood unconscious. It was then that he heard clapping from behind him and turned. It was the Sangheili shipmaster who was clapping at him and then spoke.

"_Well done demon, you are what the legends on your kind spoke of, but can you take on a true Sangheili warrior like me and survive?_" shipmaster then draw his energy sword and activate it. Twin blades made out of plasma appear in his hands as he took stance that many Sangheili before him did when fighting with plasma sword. David smiled behind his CQB helmet, as he was now in the element he was the best in. He picked up a deactivated plasma sword from the immobilized stealth elite and activates it. On this sword, twin blades also appeared, except that they were in red color instead of blue like the one the shipmaster has.

David took similar pose to match the one his opponent has, however he kept his blade on his waist level, while his opponent held it high above him. As they both waiting for the other one to make their first move they begun to circle, watching the opponent moves carefully while trying to find a weakness in each other stance. David remembered what his NCO Mendez once said about close combat, that it's like chess only that chess pieces are replaced with arms and legs. Since nothing came from his opponent, David decided to make the first move. He sprung forward and attempted to slice shipmaster arm off. He either anticipate this maneuver, or he just got lucky because he rolled out of David way and attempted to slice his exposed back, only to be repelled by Mjolnir shield. David, who quickly regained his momentum turned around and with his left hand formed into a first punched the Sangheili shipmaster into his chest. The force of the punch sends the elite a few feet backwards, but just like David, he too recovers fast.

"_Just to make it more of a fair fight_" spoke in calm voice as he turned off his energy shield "I_ have turned off my shields, now it's an even fight_" this time he was clearly mocking him. Sangheili shipmaster then roared in anger and charged the demon. David too charged him, and when they meet a flurry of motion followed as both of them tried to outmatched the other with their swords. It was like someone had put it reverse, as neither managed to hit the other.

However, after the shipmaster tried to decapitate the Spartan he missed, thus allowing David to grab shipmaster sword arm and hold it tightly. This way he managed to reduce his attack capabilities as the elite only had his left arm free. And now he used that arm to grab Spartan by his throat and attempted to choke him. David however simply slashed the elite with his energy sword across his stomach area. This slash bypassed the elite shield, resulting in a serious injury. The elite grip on David throat weakens and then released as the elite grabbed the wound on his stomach. David released his arm and the shipmaster fell on ground.

"_You're lucky Sangheili_" spoke David as he kneel next to him and bring out a small first aid kit from his belt "_My orders are to capture you as a prisoner , not to kill you_" as he imply a improved version of biofoam onto Sangheili wound. A moment later he induced a full syringe of anesthesia. The shipmaster then took a deep breath and when he exhaled he also closed his eyes and when David check for pulse he quickly figure it out that they anesthesia worked. David then stood up and contact the Dawn "_This is Spartan 036, mission accomplished, tell Major Chung that ONI now has four Sangheili to interrogate_"

"_Understood Spartan, standby, a team of ODST is making their way towards the bridge they will transport the prisoners back onto Dawn" _Spoke Diana to him and then added "_Major Rebeca Chung sends you congratulations for your capture of shipmaster._" With that said, Diana left his comlink, so now all that David could do was wait for ODST to reach him.

**Date: October 12, 2163**

**Location: Horse Head Nebula, Minuteman Station, Cerberus**

"_Report number 341-1_

_To: The Illusive Man_

_From: Operative Miranda Lawson_

_Sir, as you know we have found wreckage of unknown origin. While the wreckage is unknown it oddly feels feels…familiar. Further research revealed what we believe to be a name for the ship. Oddly it was written in English and it read "Forward onto Dawn". We believe that what we discovered is a fraction of ship. The technology of the ship is impossible to identify, due to the extensive damage it took, however, we discover a pod of some sort inside the wreckage that, from what we could determine form our scans, contains a human life sign. Further investigation suggested._"

The Illusive Man, after reading the massage set it down on his chair handle and turned to his console to check the date that operative Miranda send it along. It wasn't much however he was clearly impressed over the readings that have been taken by scanning the pod. He immediately contacted Miranda and as soon as her holographic image appeared he spoke.

"_Are you sure that these finds are correct?_"

"_Yes sir, we double and then triple check it. The life form inside that pod is human. But if we can believe our scans, that human is, well a superhuman for the lack of better words sir._"

"_Did we make any progress on opening the pod?_"

"_Sir, I believe that we will be able to open it quite soon. I officially request additional guards, in case if this "superhuman" is hostile_"

"_Granted, I'll assign cruiser for additional support and three squads of troopers just to be safe._"

"_Thank you sir_"

"_And Miranda_"

"_Yes sir?_"

"_I don't need to remind you that we are at war do I? Make sure that superhuman will be ready to fight for the humanity_" ordered The Illusive Man as he lighted his sweet Williams cigar and put it in his mouth.

"_I'll do what is necessary sir_" as she said that, The Illusive Man exhaled a column of smoke and terminated the transmission from his end.

"_Ma'am, what are The Illusive Man orders?_" asked a junior Cerberus scientist. Miranda stood up and looked at the young scientist "_To open the pod, and see just what is inside_"

"_Yes ma'am_" the junior scientist then bring out a pad and handed it over to Miranda. "_As you can see, the pod is keeping the person inside alive by cryogenically freezing it. This means that the person inside could be for impressive amount of The Illusive Man and if readings are correct, got up like it was taking a nap ma'am_"

Miranda took the tab herself and examined it. She was visibly impressed. She then walked outside her quarters and towards the area where this pod that cryogenically freezes its user was located. Once she entered in she noticed quite a few technicians and scientists poking around it. The pod was about ten feet tall and four feet wide. It had a glassy canopy, but due to its nature it was frozen so any looks inside of it were currently limited. For now, her attention was directed to a technician operating an Omni tool, so she first walked over to him.

"_Have we discovered how to open it yet?_"

The technician to who she was speaking to look up from her Omni tool and replied "_I believe so, with your permission I would like to try and open it now ma'am_"

"_Permission denied, first I want extra security posted around here, I already spoke to The Illusive Man about just that and reinforcements are on their way. Once they arrive we will attempt to open the pod!_"

"_Yes ma'am_"

Technician then returned to her work of scanning the pod for any information's available on. This triggered something on the pod itself. A pedaster open on top of the pod and a holographic image of a human woman show up. In appearance she was very similar to Avina, the citadel V.I. except that this holographic image had larger amount of numbers and equations passing throe her "veins" then Avina ever had. This woman looked around the room, and then focused her eyes on Miranda.

"_What are you?_" asked Miranda this person. "_Cortana, serial number CTN 0452-9_"

"_Are you a V.I?_"

"_Clarify_"

Miranda was taken a back a little by this comment. She did not expect to explain what a virtual intelligence is.

"_A virtual intelligence is a sophisticated program designed to make modern computer systems easier to use_"

"_Affirmative, I am a V.I._"

"_Well then Cortana, what could you tell us about the person inside this pod?_"

"_The pod you are retiring to is a cryo pod, needed when traveling using slipspace jump. The person inside is a John 117, a Spartan super soldier_"

"_A super soldier? A Slipspace? Are you referring to mass relays?_"

"_Error, power is limited, recharge required_" the image of Cortana then shot down and disappeared. Miranda sighs and placed this in information gathered for The Illusive Man. What she didn't know is that Cortana is in fact an artificial intelligence and on top of that she already managed to infiltrate the minuteman station. So she already know that if she revealed herself as artificial intelligence they would most likely try to dismantle her and/or kill the master chief. She intercepted and monitored the conversation between this Miranda Lawson and a so called The Illusive Man. She then decided that she will stay hidden until master chief is awakened and decide upon his decision.


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey readers, I'm looking for a beta reader since first one, after checking chapter 3 and realized it had halo parts in it decided that he wont be my beta reader anymore cause h knows very little if anything about it. So I would like to know if anyone could help me either find me a beta reader or be a beta reader?**

**Oh and sorry if this chapter feels rushed. **

* * *

><p><strong>Date: January 12, 2164<strong>

**Location: Unknown location, SSV Normandy**

The SSV Normandy just reached a mass relay from which the System Alliance originates. The same relay, that the Alliance leadership order not to activate because the sun in the system where the humans originate from has been turned into early super nova by impact of a large meteor into it. At least this is what the official history of the alliance says. Now however, the SSV Normandy, first of her class must take this relay for unknown mission, under the command on Captain Anderson.

"_Captain, were nearing the relay, so far I'm not getting any reading that the relay wouldn't work._"

"_Thanks Joker, bring us to 1000 kilometers from the relay and hold position._"

"_So hurry up and wait, got it sir_"

Anderson shakes his head after hearing his pilot reply. He opens up his console and begun to read reports when the alliance diplomat they received on before embarking on this mission knock on the door, despite having a bell, for that solo function. "_Come in_" spoke Anderson as he closes his console, as it contained both reports from the front-lines and personal messages from his friends and family. The person who walked in was a human male, about 40 to 45 years old. "_Yes? Is there anything I can help you with Mister Philip Johnson?_" Philip walked over to Anderson desk and asked "_Mind if I sit down?_" Anderson made a hand gesture that shows him he can. After the diplomat sit down he spoke "_I know that you have some, troubles with us going through this mass relay captain_"

"_This relay is supposed to be out of the question, because it leads to our original homeworld. One that was destroyed by its sun going super nova after meteorite hit it. We are only alive because governments of the world united and build as many colony ships as they could and escape throe the relay, but still, there was not enough time or ships to save everyone. This is the darkest time in our history that I know of_"

"_That captain, I'm afraid is wrong_" spoke diplomat and after a small delay continued "_The history you know is a fabrication of original admirals that lead the colony fleet throe the relay_"

"_What are you saying Phillips?_"

"_What I am saying, our original homeworld, Earth, was never destroyed by the sun going super nova. There never was a supernova to begin with_" Anderson stood up enraged "_Are you saying that our history, the things that make us "The System Alliance" are FAKE!_" Phillips only nod once and continue "_Please understand, I was only told this a few moments before we departure and please, allow me to continue_" Anderson, gauntly sat down and do his best not to be mad at Phillips . It was not an easy thing to do.

"_The admirals decided to hide the truth behind our origin. We are decedents of rebel faction captain, a faction called _"_The insurrections_". _They rebelled against a faction of humanity known as the UNSC which stands for United Nation Space Command, who at the time had control over 800 colonies._" Anderson was clearly surprised and shocked by this information. "_800 colonies? Even with the entire citadel space combined we would barely reach 200 colonies, and you're saying that this UNSC controlled over 800 colonies?_"Phillips nod once and continued "_Due to large amount of colonies under a single rule, the disputes were excepted to follow, especially given the fact that UNSC were basically fascists, if we can believe this report_" Phillips handed Anderson a tablet on which there were every information from 24 century "_24 century? But we are only in 22 century_"

"_That is because admirals decided it is better if we started a new, so they replaced the timeline to year 2000, by all the logic, the UNSC should now be in 27 or 28 century_"

"_If this UNSC is so bad, why are we going there?_"

"_This is rather obvious isn't it captain? We are going to ask them for their help against the Turians and the Batarians and captain, perhaps it would be better if we keep this history lesson between ourselves, at least for now_" Suggested Phillips and Anderson, was inclined to agree with him.

_XXXXX_

A few decks below them, a squad of Alliance marines had a target practice. By far the best marksman is soldier called John Shepard. He managed to shot nine out of ten targets right in between the eyes with his sniper rifle with the last one hitting in middle of target chest. He did this in nine seconds, which is the record among the System Alliance marines. The rest of the marine's time to shot all ten targets was from ten to 14 seconds. The reason why Shepard managed to shot faster and more accurate than the rest of marines in his squad is because Shepard is a N7 Commando. This means that he had access to advance training and better weapons. For example the marines used the Mantis Shepard used Viper sniper rifle with better range, damage and accuracy. However it still had same rate of fire.

"_And another one shot one kill_" spoke Shepard as he scored another headshot. "_Although I would prefer, more challenging targets over those standing ones, Jenkins, could you change targets to moving ones?_"

"_Sure thing commander_" replied a marine private identified as Jenkins as he set the holographic targets to represent a Turian platoon in attack formation. Shepard and the alliance marines too their aim and fired. Out of 12 marines that fired alongside Shepard, 10 of them managed to score clean kill, as the other two wounded their targeted alien. Shepard managed to take down two Turians, however that meant his rifle overheated so he had to wait a couple of seconds before he could fire again. Instead he switched his Viper sniper rifle for a Vindicator assault rifle and fire in full auto against remaining Turian holographic targets. It didn't took them long to clear the range of all targets.

"_Nice shooting commander_" spoke Jenkins as he checked the score. Shepard managed to shot more targets then all marines combined.

"_That's N7 training for you_" replied Shepard "_There is no one that can beat us_"

"_I don't know about that commander, I heard rumor that the Turian black ops unit, the black watch, eliminated a N7 platoon during the second assault on Shanxi_" spoke a marine who removed her helmet and held it in front of her.

"_Your captain Ashley Williams are you not? The granddaughter of general Williams, the man who had surrendered Shanxi, during first contact war right?_" Asked Shepard and after a while, Ashley responded with an affirmative nod, thus Shepard continued "_This doesn't matter anymore as there are other generals who did the same thing in this war, and to reply to your statement, that what you heard is a result of Turian propaganda_" he then step on a empty crate so that whole shooting range could see him and spoke.

"_I am a commander Shepard and I have something to tell each and every one of you. Do not believe every rumor that you hear about the Turians OR the Batarians. Captain Anderson is still receiving reports from the frontlines, despite the fact we are several relays away from it. And he shares those reports with me. I personally guarantee you that the rumors are false. Yes, we are taking hits, but we are giving both of our enemies as hard as we're getting it!_"

After his little motivation speech, he jumped off from empty crate as the crew of SSV Normandy and the marines under his command cheered.

"_Hey commander Shepard, this is Joker, just letting you know, that victory speech of yours was heard all over the ship and now captain Anderson would like to speak with you_"

"_Thanks Joker, please tell the good captain I'm on my way_"

**Date: March 28, 2706**

**Location: UNSC controlled space, outer colonies, UNSC the Dawn of War**

The ONI operative, Major Rebeca Chung walked inside a room containing a Sangheili shipmaster, captured during the pirate ship raid. Inside of the room was also a pair of ODST in full ODST armor and stunt batons, in case if the Sangheili would manage to break his restrains and just in case of the Elite defeating both ODSTs there was a Spartan waiting outside the room armed with a shotgun with less then lethal ammunition. They still need this specific Elite alive.

"_Good morning prisoner number 3141, how are you feeling today?_" spoke Major Rebecca as she sat down on a chair on her side of the table. The Elite on his side of the table look up into Majors eyes and spoke "_I am not a number human, my name is…_" before the Elite could continue Major Rebeca raised her hand. This was a signal for the ODST as one of them activates his stunt baton and pushes it on the Elite neck. The Elite grunted in pain and tried to strike at the ODST, only to be restrained by the energy handcuffs placed on his side of the table.

"_As I was asking you, number 3141, how are you feeling today_" spoke Major Rebecca once again, and this time the Elite answered "_I felt worse human_"

"_Splendid, now we can continue our little chat, tell me number 3141, what exactly where you doing on board the…_" spoke Major Rebecca and paused a little and then continued "_CCS battlecruiser_ "_Vengeance of the fallen_"

"_I tried to find a way to avenge my family blood by killing your kind_" replied Elite and chuckled "_Commanding a pirate ship was the best way_"

"_Charming, I was unaware that the_ "_Sangheili honor code_"_ allows a act of terrorism against their allies_"

The elite tried to slam his fists on the table in rage, but just like before the same handcuffs prevented him from doing that. So instead he yelled at his interrogator "_I AM a TRUE Sangheili, I am not an offspring of a weak blood that follows _"_the arbiter_"_ honor code. I follow the teaching of the covenant! The only true path to the great journey!_"

Major Rebeca smiled amusingly. She clearly enjoyed this little conversation with the Elite. "_And you are aware that the leaders of_ "_The Covenant_"_ tried to exterminate your race about 150 years ago?_"

"_That is because the Sangheili in Thel 'Vadamee time were weak and pathetic and did not follow the teaching of our gods, the forerunners!_"

"_It must be nice to live in your own little worlds number 3141, but now it is time for me to break your world and I have to admit, I love the sound of that_" spoke Major Rebeca with a grin on her face "Y_our gods, the Forerunners, did not ascend to a _"_higher place of existence_". _The halo array, or in words you would understand,_ "_the sacred rings_"_ did not send the Forerunners on this so called_ "_great journey_" she smiled once again, her grin slightly widening and continued "_In fact, the only journey it sent them to, was to their death_"

"_Do not speak these lies to me and believe that I will fall for them. You speak the lies that the Arbiter believed and not the true words of our prophets!_"

This last statement got Major Rebeca. San'shyuum, also known as the prophets in the covenant are in liege with this Elite? She know that now she hit the nerve in him so she continued to drill deep into the Elite for answers, hoping that by simply acting on his religion zealotry would give her the information she needs "And where did you hear "_The truth spoken by the prophets_"_ hm? All of the San'shyuum is dead by the hands of the Sangheili Empire during the great schism_"

"_More lies spread by the heretical humans and the Sangheili who believe them! Those who are true believers must visit the ancient homeworld of the prophets themselves to learn the truth!_"

"_Thank you number 3141, you have been very useful in stopping the raids on the UNSC and the Sangheili Empire_" spoke Major Rebeca with clear satisfaction in her voice. As the ONI operator stand up and walked outside the room, it took the Elite a full minute to realize what he had just done. When Rebeca closed the doors of the room, the Elite roared in anger, mad at himself for letting a human to trick him.

_XXXXX_

"_Admiral Marshall, ma'am!_" spoke captain of the UNSC Dawn of war Victor Angelos as he was contacted by the Fleet admiral Julia Marshall, stationed on "The United Future" a massive station build by combined efforts of the UNSC, the Sangheili and the Jiralhanae Empire. The station is located on the only pace in the galaxy where hr borders of the empires meet.

"_Captain Angelos, I can see that trap laid by ONI was a success_" spoke admiral Marshall as she read the reports forwarded towards her by Major Rebeca. "_And from what major Rebeca already learned from her week of interrogation, the combined Sangheili and UNSC task force razed several pirate bases in their sectors. This has been a major victory captain_"

"_Thank you Ma'am!_"

"_However this is not the reason I am contacting you captain_" admiral then send him a set of coordinates onto his terminal and continued "_Our forward observation station received these signals emitting from outside of UNSC space. We had scouted that system where this signals come from, but it was primary meant for new colonies. Since it had no habitable planets we left it alone and focus on other systems. This may have been a mistake captain_"

She had then forwarded all known information of the system in question. It had one blue sun and gas giant along with few mercury sized rocks that could be counted as planets. The only importance the UNSC might have from this system was mining for resources on the asteroid belts. But at the time that was not a priority so the expedition there was abandoned

"_Why did you contact us ma'am? The Dawn is a warship, it would be better if you deployed a science vessel instead_"

"_I contact you because you are the only ship nearby that will get there in less than a hour._"

"_And if this is a first contact scenario again?_"

"_IF the contact turned out to be hostile, you will have a quarter of my fleet to support you and on top of that, we will contact both of our allies to send their own ships for support. In fact one of Sangheili ships is on its way there as we speak_"

Captain Angelos was amazed. Fleet admiral Julia Marshall commanded a fleet of almost a 400 ships, so if they were in trouble a 100 UNSC ships would jump in to assist the Dawn of war. Not to forget supportive fleets from the Sangheili and the Jiralhanae allies. He could easily count on 200 ships in total to assist him. That was not bad force to counter an alien attack.

"_Admiral, do you know the name of the Sangheili ship on its way there?_" The admiral revised her notes and replied "_It's a assault carrier, _"_The seeker of redemption_"_, I believe you know her shipmaster don't you captain_"

"_Yes admiral I do_"

"_These are your orders captain, if this is a first contact scenario I want you to do whatever you can to prevent a war coming._"

The captain Angelos saluted her and after she disconnected from her end he relay his orders to ship AI, who in turn plot a slipspace course to it. After a minute of crew preparing for slipspace jump the ship jumped towards the given coordinates.

**Date: January 13, 2164**

**Location: unknown region of space, SSV Normandy, after relay jump**

"_Joker, report!_"

"_Sorry captain, I have no idea where we are, however there is no black hole around, isn't this the system where our homeworld is suposed to be?_"

"_Joker I want to know if there are any ships, stations and colonies, anything that would be man made out there!_"

"_Sir…I don't detect anything in system, is anything supposed to be here?_"

"_Joker, just keep scanning_"

"_Aye aye captain_"

Captain turned towards diplomat Phillips and spoke "_I thought that we would meet something belonging to the UNSC as soon as we would jump into the system_" Phillips only shake his head and spoke "_I had my doubts, our ancestors AI, once they woke up from cryro sleep reported that they actually jumped 2 relays, one by mistake and another as AI test._"

"_So we still have one relay before we reach the UNSC_"

"_In theory, however admiral Akimov believes that they would found the first relay and advance using ___i___t_" replied Phillips and before Anderson could reply, joker spoke over comlink "_Captain, there is something big coming our way_" joker spoke with amazement and to Anderson surprise, shock as well, in his voice. As far as Anderson knows it, Joker is not shocked by ordinary things, so whatever Joker spotted on his scanners had to be anything else then ordinary. "_How big Joker?_" after a moment of silence her replied "_It's about four to five times bigger than the Destiny Ascension, its massive sir!_"

"_Are you sure about that Joker, couldn't it be a bug in our scanners?_" asked Phillips after a while, hoping that it was. A ship four times larger than the destiny Ascension would be almost impossible to build within the System Alliance, even with the Citadel founding.

"_Captain there is no bug in the system, and it will appear in the system in a minute or so_" replied Joker and added "_I suggest you come to the cockpit and see for yourself if you don't believe me, sir_" Anderson and Phillips look at each other and then walked towards the elevator. It opened before they got near it however and out of it step commander Shepard and saluted them _"Captain Anderson, Phillips, reporting as ordered_"

"_Commander Shepard, please follow us to the cockpit, we'll talk on the way_" Shepard nod and moved a little so that they could all fit in. As the door closed Anderson spoke "_You are , served on the SSV Delhi, which was boarded by Turian shock troopers in 2162 and you alone are responsible that they didn't capture it, as soon as you come back to New Earth you were recruited to the N7 program, is my information about you correct?_"

Shepard nod in agreement "_That's correct sir, may I ask why we are going to the cockpit?_"

"_To either see the largest ship in our history, or the biggest embarrassment of Joker so far_" Shepard only laugh a little, but just as soon as they reached the cockpit, a flash of light appeared above the SSV Normandy. A second later a massive purple ship emerged out of the light. It took it about three seconds to fully emerge out of shimmering white and blue light. They could now witness it in its full size and glory. True to joker words, it was about 5500 meters long, give or take several meters.

"_Sir, I doubt that this is a bug in Normandy scanners_" spoke Joker and both Phillips as well as Shepard only nod slowly, still not believing that the giant ship is real "_Joker, I hope that we are in stealth mode, are we?_"

"_Yes sir, I don't think that they can see us, unless if they are watching out of windows that is_" Just as he said that, the massive ship performed a turn that even the SSV Normandy, despite its maneuverability, and Joker as its pilot, would have hard time doing it. It turned right at the SSV Normandy and approached it. "_Sir, should we run?_"

"_J__oker, I think that if we did, it wouldn't matter, and if we try to fight it, I'm sure we wouldn't last for more than a second._"

"_So what…should we surrender?_"

"_We'll stand our ground they could be the ones we come to meet_" ordered Anderson and despite Joker better judgment, they remained where they were. The purple ship positioned its self so that its hangar bay was right in front of the SSV Normandy. "_I think that they want us to go in sir_"

**Date: October 18, 2163**

**Location: Horse Head Nebula, Minuteman Station, Cerberus**

It took six days for the requested reinforcements to arrive. That made the Cerberus operative Miranda Lawson a little mad, and the welcome the Cerberus centurion received has been anything then warm. However, after her anger had softened, she led them towards the cryopod and explained them what to do. After they were in position, the Cerberus technicians began their work to open up the pod. As they did so, Miranda tired to contact the cryopod virtual intelligence Cortana. As she taps several controls on her Omni-tool an image of Cortana appeared.

"_Greetings_" spoke the image of Cortana and Miranda replied "_Hello Cortana, I want to ask you a question about this John-117 inside the pod_" she looked at the pod and technicians were about half way through opening it. "_What is your question miss Miranda?_" Miranda turned her attention back to the image of Cortana and asked _"How did you know my name?_"

"_I learned it by talking to technician who access me earlier this week, is the question you wish to know?_"

Miranda shakes her head. She had more important matters to attend to at the moment. She once again looked at the pod, seeing that it was about to be open she asked Cortana "_How would this John-117 react when he realized he is not in familiar environment?_"

"_Probability of spartan attempt to escape is low_"

"_That isn't helpful Cortana…_" spoke Miranda and was interrupted by Cortana reply "_Probability of Spartan to attack the Cerberus soldiers is almost 98%, statistic suggest that Cerberus soldiers will try to stop him, but it suggest that they will be unsuccessful at their attempts_"

"_Wait what?_" asked Miranda and turned to Cortana, just moments after that, she heard technician screaming. She turned and witnessed a giant of the man in a green armor grabbed a Cerberus trooper. The spartan grab trooper arm that hold the gorgon assault rifle and with relative ease point at the troopers standing on walkway, while holding the soldier in front of him like a shield. One of the troopers managed to fire at the Spartan back. As he did, a golden barrier appeared. Spartan reflexes were extremely fast for human standards. He brought the soldiers to intercept the incoming fire and when the gorgon overheated the spartan toss the "shield" trooper into the one who was firing at him. As the duo collided, the spartan sprinted past them and into the hallway.

"_Go after him! But do not kill him!_" yelled Miranda her order to the Cerberus troopers who got up and followed the spartan herself. A beeping in on her Omni-tool signaled that she is being called. She activates it and a message from Cerberus trooper played itself. "_Ma'am, the subject is nearing the barracks our centurion is currently there, we already informed him of the subject heading his way._"

Miranda sighed in relief. The Cerberus centurions have a shock baton so she didn't need to worry about centurion harming the spartan. She accesses the cameras from her Omni-tool and monitored the encounter of centurion with the spartan. She could see centurion activate the shock baton and spartan reaching for something as well. She could exactly tell what he got from his belt, but it seemed like a piece of metal, perhaps a stunt baton of his own. But she was amazed at what it actually was when she witness the spartan activating it. It was a two edged blade made out of energy! She was clearly impressed by it and by the look of centurion he was too as he drop the shock baton and bring his first up, thus challenging the spartan in hand to hand combat instead. The spartan seemed to accept it as he deactivated his sword. This however was a futile gesture as spartan punched the centurion just once in the head, breaking centurion helmet. Spartan, upon seeing that the centurion was a human stopped and simply stood there.

Miranda just entered the barracks and spoke "_Spartan 117, stand down, we are not your enemies!_"

Spartan look at her and after a while he spoke "_You have 5 minutes to explain to me who are you, where I am, what am I doing here and where is Cortana?_"


	5. Chapter 5

**I would like to thank "Tigerwar" and "Miner249er" for proof reading the chapter before being upload.  
><strong>

**I hope you wont be disappointed by it, considering that I miss the "deadline"  
><strong>

**By the way, can you give me a feedback regarding the story line/plot? Or should I do Q&A? If yes please leave a question in review or PM it to me.**

**Thats all, I hope you enjoy it!****  
><strong>

* * *

><p><strong>Date: January 13, 2164<strong>

**Location: unknown region of space, SSV Normandy,**

Diplomat Philips looked at the hologram of the UNSC fleet admiral. The admiral was a woman called Julia Marshall. She was a clear example of UNSC militaristic nature that their system alliance ancestors fled from.

She spoke first. "_So, if what you are saying is true, then you are descendants of terrorist who were fighting against the UNSC during _24__th_ century, our 24__th__ century, and collaborated with the covenant, a coalition of multiple alien species, during human-covenant war_"

It wasn't long ago that Philips received this information from the captain, or as the aliens preferred rank, shipmaster, of the ship that they encountered. They called themselves "_Sangheili_", a warrior race, that the Normandy marines learned the hard way. When the Sangheili captain entered the hangar, some of the marines had apparently mistaken him and his escorts for Turians and opened fire. Philips was informed by Commander Shepard that all marines were neutralized in a mere minute. A number of invisible aliens had appeared and sliced the marine weapons with a "_blue fork_" weapon made of plasma. It was only due to the timely arrival of the UNSC warship, Dawn of War, which prevented hostilities from rising any further. After explaining to the shipmaster and captain his situation, he was now on board the UNSC Dawn of War and speaking to the UNSC admiral in charge of this part of UNSC space.

"_That is correct admiral_"

"_Now, may I know why exactly did you come back to us?_"

"_Admiral, I'm here on behalf of the System Alliance, to ask for help against the hostile alien forces, known to us as the Turian Hierarchy and the Batarian Hegemony_"

"_And why exactly would we help you? You are after all children of rebels and terrorists_"

"_You would refuse to help your fellow human beings?_"

"_Yes, two reasons, the first is the fact you are former insurrections and the second is that we have no issue with these aliens_" Admiral Marshall said with a slight hint of boredom in her voice.

"_After they defeat us, they will come through this relay and attack your precious UNSC_" Phillips retorted thinking that he could threat UNSC into assistance. The response he received was not what he expected.

"_If they arrive with this mass relay, then we will just destroy the relay_"

"_This would be impossible to accomplish, our scientist tried to destroy one of the relays that leads to our capital planet, but with little success. Our nuclear weapons didn't even scratch its hull_"

"_Our weapons are much more powerful, compared to the weapons on the SSV Normandy_"

"_And even if you do destroy the relay, the explosion of all that element zero inside of it would result in a super nova that could destroy this solar system_" The Admiral was just about to reply when she was contacted by the ship A.I.

"_Admiral, I would like to speak with you in private_"

Admiral Marshall deactivate the holo projection and muted the sounds for communication room on board the Dawn of War.

"_What do you want to talk about Diana?_"

"_Admiral, I think that if we do not investigate part of a galaxy the system alliance is from we may miss a change to acquire new technology_" Technology is something that gets admiral Marshall interested.

"_My scan of the SSV Normandy indicates that while they field different type of technology though primitive as compared to the UNSC Dawn of War. However, their weapons are interesting_" said Diana and showed a projection of a blueprints of a system alliance assault rifle "_Their infantry weapons are much more advance then our own, for example their M-8 Avenger assault rifle fires a grain sized bullets at about five times faster speed then our standard weapon do and it holds a dozen times more ammo then our current weapons. In short, their weapons have more bullets and fire faster than ours_"

"_Meaning that they have almost unlimited ammunition in their guns_"

"_Yes admiral, the main drawback is that their weapons emit heat. The gun tends to overload after a sustained amount of fire_"

"_Interesting, perhaps our scientist could fix this problem_"

"_There are other specs that are different than ours, for example their bullets are designed to squash the target, not penetrate_"

"_Is there any other tech, which would be of use to us?_" Diana did not say anything, instead she show the admiral a number of different technology that would be useful for the UNSC.

"_Well Diana, you convinced me, but I will not deploy a fleet or a task force, if I do, the Sangheili and Jiralhanae would become suspicions of our activity_"

"_This is why I suggest that you send the Dawn of War alone_"

"_The Dawn is a destroyer class, I believe that a frigate or a corvette class would be better suited for this, either that or we refit the Dawn of War, perhaps a forerunner power generator_"

"_I will have my recommendations on what upgrades we should include_"

"_However we do have a problem, what do we do with the __Seeker of Redemption__?_"

"_The "Seeker" is considered to be a neutral ship, while it's a Sangheili empire ship, her shipmaster chose to be a mercenary. I believe that we can count on its support on this mission_"

"_Hmm…very well after I'm done with Phillips, I will talk to the seeker of redemption shipmaster_" The image of Diana faded away and admiral marshal returned her attention to the System Alliance representative. "_Mister Phillips, after a talk with Diana, I have decided that we will assist you_"

Phillips smiled and bows slightly as he replied "_Thank you admiral Marshall, on behalf of…_" Marshall raised her hand to indicate that she would like to speak.

"_However I cannot deploy a large number of ships, due to the troubles we face on our own borders. So, for the moment, I can only deploy one ship, the Dawn of War, after it receives additional equipment needed to operate better in your space_"

Philips was visibly upset, not only won't the UNSC support them with a large fleet, which the System Alliance would need to turn the balance of war into their favor. They will only send one ship, ONE ship. He had serious doubts that this one ship could tip the tide of the war into Alliance favor.

"_Can we count on more ships in nearby future?_"

"_You can count on 200 heavily armed and armored capital ships in following year, but first we need to stabilize problems we have at our borders with the Jiralhanae empire_" That was a lie, but she spoke skillfully enough that Philips bought it.

"_Very well…if this is the best you can do, then we have no other choice but to accept it_" said Phillips as admiral Marshall leaned forward to speak "_The Dawn will go to the planet Reach to receive a refit, and the SSV Normandy will travel with it_"

Philips raised his head and asked "_Why would we come?_"

He received a grin from Marshall "_Because you simply cannot refuse my offer_"

**Date: February 3, 2164**

**Location: Unknown region of space, SSV Normandy**

Commander Shepard walked into the medical bay, inside of which laid several wounded marines under his command. All of them had been defeated by the alien species called "_Sangheili_". Truth be told, the Sangheili had defended them self as the marines had fired first. A marine named Terry Patterson, for some reason (possibly because of the Sangheili mandibles) mistook them for Turians and opened fire. This conflict was short but fierce when several cloaked Sangheili suddenly appeared and flanked the Alliance marines. It didn't take them long for them to disarm and defeat the marines. Shepard, at the time, had not been on scene. He was in the second, more heavily armed marine team, positioned deeper in the Normandy just in case the aliens broke through. Before he could move in to assist his comrades, another human team arrived by the means of a shuttle (now known as the pelican) and managed to prevent further fighting.

The fact that there are other humans inside the galaxy was news of surprise for Shepard. It was a bigger surprise for these yet unknown humans, whom Captain Anderson later referred to as the United Nations Space Command, or the UNSC for short. Diplomat Phillips went with these UNSC humans on board their ship with no escort. Something that commander Shepard believes is a mistake. However, Captain Anderson had allowed it, thus Shepard concerns had been overruled. With nothing else to do, he decided to visit the medical bay where he is now.

"_Doctor Chakwas…_" Shepard said as he walked inside the med bay. Doctor Chakwas (a civilian doctor who decided to spend the war on warship) turned away from a wounded marine with a broken arm and faced the commander.

"_Ah yes, Commander Shepard, nice of you to stop by_"

Shepard gave her a nod and continued "_Are any of my men critically injured?_"

"_No, mostly broken bones or plasma burnings, both of which we can treat with medigel, whoever these aliens are, they certainly know enough of human anatomy to know where is lethal and where is not_" spoke doctor as she consulted her datapad "_For example, those wounds on private Long…_" she motioned to Shepard to follow her as she walked to the alliance marine who was sleeping on the bed, a nurse was applying medigel on a nasty looking wound left by one of the Sangheili plasma blades. "_As you can see, the Sangheili that stabbed him knew where to aim_"

Shepard raised his eyebrow and asks "_It hit close to Long heart didn't it? An inch more to the left and private long would be history_"

"_Commander, the Sangheili blade hit a non-critical area, it did bring a lot of pain to private long, that's for sure, but it didn't critically wound him._" Shepard gave a nod at doctor Chakwas explanation and spoke "_How long before private Long and the rest of marines would be fit for duty?_"

"_Those with broken bones, it would take them about six weeks. For those with plasma burns it will take them less, about three weeks_"

"_Carry on doctor_" Shepard said as he walked outside the med bay. He then walked towards the elevator and took it up to the Normandy's Bridge. There he met with Captain Anderson, whom then met with captain of the UNSC warship that saved them from the Sangheili wrath. Captain Anderson was escorted by two of Alliance marines. The UNSC captain was escorted only by one soldier, who looked more like a robot instead of a human being.

"_Captain Angelos, I'm Captain Anderson, I welcome you on the System Alliance ship the SSV Normandy_" Anderson said and offered a hand to the Captain Angelos who gladly accepted it and shook it.

"_It's a pleasure to be on board the Normandy captain_" Both of the captains walked into Anderson's quarters, while the robot, apparently programmed to only obey the UNSC captain remained behind. As Shepard walked pass it and he could swear that the robot tracked him with its eyes behind its blue faceplate.

With nothing better to do, he decided to once again check the recording of the Sangheili's easy victory against them.

**Date: February 2, 2164**

**Location: Citadel, embassies, council chambers**

"_Ambassador Jath'Amon, you wanted to talk to the Citadel council, well here we are_" spoke Sparatus the Turian councilor.

"_We have several important meetings scheduled today, so please, forgive the rashness of councilor Sparatus_" spoke the Asari Councilor Tevos "_What is it that you wish to discuss with us Ambassador Jath'Amon?_"

The Batarian ambassador, tilted his head to the left before speaking, thus giving the councilors the Batarian way of showing the respect he felt for them. _"I have two matters to discuss with you councilors, the first matter is on behalf of the Batarian Hegemony_" he cough once and continued "_Our leaders wish to know when will the Batarian people be allowed to officially be part of Citadel space and be offered a position on both the Spectres and a seat on the citadel council_"

Councilor Tevos slightly shook her head the motion was undetectable to anyone in the room, undetectable to all but the experienced Batarian politician, who then focused on the Asari with curiosity and expectation in his four eyes.

"_We have been over this ambassador, the council will officially offer the invitation to be part of citadel space to the Batarian people when you abolish slavery_" Councilor Tevos took a moment to breath and continued "_As we speak, the Batarian pirates are attacking ships and taking its crews to be sold as slaves. Not to forget the human prisoners that you capture and are later sold as slaves_"

"_Bah, those humans deserve to be sold as slaves, they have no honor in fighting a war_" spoke councilor Sparatus "_If you want my opinion on the matter of human slaves, I say we let the Batarians gather as many as they want_"

The Ambassador smiled and tilted his head left, showing a great respect to the Turian councilor and then brought up a datapad he was keeping in his pocket and transferred its information on his Omni-tool "_Councilor Tevos, I know that you are disgusted by slavery, but I find it interesting that almost 75% of human slaves are bought by the Asari_"

"_Well, that is interesting information, it would seem that the Asari are not such an enlightened race after all_" spoke Sparatus with his mandibles forming into a Turian equivalent of a chuckle on his face.

The Asari councilor however was not shaken by this information "_I cannot comment on this information at the moment, but my vote for the Batarians to join the citadel council will be postponed until the Batarians abolish slavery_"

"_I vote for Batarian hegemony to join the Citadel council and the council spectres, due to their support against the human system alliance_" spoke councilor Sparatus.

Now it was up to the council Valern to vote and as democracy works, his vote will be the deciding factor "_I postpone my vote for the Batarian hegemony to join the citadel council until they accept our laws, which state that slavery of any kind is not allowed_"

Councilor Tevos let out a sigh of relief when she heard this, but the Salarian councilor was not done just yet as he continued to speak "_However, I do believe that the Batarians have earned a chance to join the council spectres. I suggest that ambassador Jath'Amon gathers a list of an acceptable candidate and sends it to us for a full review_"

The Turian councilor nodded in agreement and even councilor Tevos had to agree on this. "_Very well, given that I am outvoted on this matter, I suggest that we have a spectre from each of our races evaluate the Batarian candidates and determine if they are acceptable or not_" Valern agreed and after a moment of hesitation so did Sparatus.

"_With this resolved, what is the second matter that you wish to discuss ambassador?_"

The Batarian ambassador Jath'Amon accesses his Omni tool and an image of ring appeared "_Councilors, one of our frigates, while on a mission to scout for suitable planets for a colony discovered a Prothean construct._" This information surprised all three of councilors. It was Salarian councilor who spoke first.

"_What makes you think that it is a Prothean construct ambassador?_"

"_This ring size is astounding, the frigate virtual intelligence had to double and then triple check it in case of faulty equipment_"

_"It can't be bigger than the citadel, if it was we would have already found it in the mass relay files left by the Protheans_" Sparatus said and Batarian ambassador only shook his head, stating that Sparatus was wrong.

"_That is incorrect councilor, this ring is bigger than the Citadel, much, much bigger_"

"_Well don't keep us in suspense then ambassador, how big is it? 80 kilometers or is it 100 kilometers?_"

"_Councilors, the size of the ring is an amazing 10,000 km and if the scanners on the frigate are correct, it is capable of sustaining life on it, so it's possible that we may actually find a living Prothean civilization on board the ring!_" spoke Jath'Amon with amazement in his voice.

This news left the council awestruck. Not only that the ring was impossibly large, there are also chances that they will find an actual living Prothean civilization and still working technology on it. The importance of this discovery could be only compared to the discovery of the relays and the citadel itself. And even those two discoveries would fade when compared to this. It was councilor Tevos who first recover from this information and spoke, or rather ordered it to the Batarian ambassador.

"_Ambassador, you will order your ship not to approach the ring any further, not until a combined citadel research and archeology team arrives at the scene._"

"_The expedition would require protection in case of an attack, I will ask the hierarchy to divert one of our fleets from engaging the System Alliance to provide protection_" Sparatus spoke up while Valern was selecting Salarian experts on Prothean technology who will accompany the fleet.

"_The Turian Hierarchy is already stretched thin in this war councilor. The Asari Republic will provide the protection. I'm sure that I will be able to convince the matriarchs to provide the protection needed, perhaps even the Destiny Ascension sister ship_"

"_We will need one of us to initiate a first contact, or at the very least a spectre_" Valern said and started searching his log of acceptable spectres.

"_I suggest that we use Asari spectre, they are the first to discover citadel, also since they are not as aggressive as the Turians they may have better chance to begin a peaceful talk_" suggested Valern and Tevos agreed. Sparatus turned to the Jath'Amon who waited rather impatiently and spoke to him

"_Ambassador, with this discovery, I believe that you earned a seat at the citadel council, even if you DO keep your slavery_" Tevos look at Sparatus with shock and was about to speak before being cut off by Valern.

"_Yes yes, this discovery is too important to ignore, I vote for Batarians to join the council_" Tevos shift her shocked expression from Sparatus to Valern.

The Turian councilor then spoke "_Congratulation ambassador Jath'Amon, you are now officially the first Batarian councilor on the citadel council_"

The Batarian bowed and said "_It's an honor councilors, the Batarian Hegemony and I are grateful for giving us this chance_" Tevos gave up after she heard the end of the sentence she couldn't do anything after all, due to the fact she was outvoted. She could perhaps black mail the Batarian councilor, into abolishing slavery, but right now, she couldn't do that. She couldn't focus on this even if she wanted to. The ring that the Batarians discovered is top priority of the Citadel council.

**Date: January 12, 2164**

**Location: Eden Prime, Alliance bunker, biological weapon facility**

Major Faustus Tarrium did not consider himself to be a coward nor did any of his superiors. He was always on the front lines, fighting any enemy the Hierarchy had to face, from lowly Batarian pirates to krogan mercenaries. He wasn't afraid to face krogan in hand to hand combat. So he certainly didn't fear any human soldier, no matter how much training they received. But now he was afraid. He was afraid of the foot size animals lurking in the Alliance bunker. These animals did something that Faustus thought to be impossible. They reanimated the dead. He was one of the Hazmat Turians who were sent inside to learn what had happened to their Batarian allies. And he was the only one who survived and managed to return to the Turian forward outpost.

"_Major, hey major, can you hear me?_" spoke one of the Turians next to Faustus but he couldn't tell who it was.

"_I'm sorry spectre, I can't reach him, the biosigns say that he is alive and that he can hear me but I doubt he can speak_" the voice that replied him was a cold one and once again, Faustus didn't recognize it.

"_Pathetic, in his record, the major Tarrium is almost a hero, coming from a family with a military tradition and served a full decade as a black watch commander and it does not stop there. The commendations just keep on piling up. It's hard to believe that this wreck of a Turian here is the major Tarrium_"

XXXXX

Faustus began to recall what happened inside the bunker. He and a group of experienced soldiers explored the hallways of the abandoned bunker, searching for the missing Batarians. They decided to divide into teams of three, thus making four groups to cover more ground. Faustus took two "_green_" soldiers with him as he explored a hallways with designation 4-F. There were several unknown human words written under it, perhaps in a code. It didn't matter much to Faustus however as he and his backup continue to sweep room after room. They found no bodies inside any of the rooms, except one. Inside the room with the number 324, his team found blood and from the looks of it the blood was human. Sensors attached to his helmet confirmed it. The amount of blood located here would be enough to be from at least five humans. He wanted to examine the room further when his team received a radio call from team one, who chose hallway with designation 1-F.

"_This is team alpha we located one of the missing Batarians. He's dead sir, gunned down. We're searching for whatever killed it, alpha out_" Just a few moments later he received another radio call from team delta.

"_This is team delta, we're under attack, need backup! Hostiles are unknown, repeat hostiles are…_" delta team leader was then cut off by a loud scream and the transmission was replaced by static.

"_Delta, come in! Come in delta! By the spirits what is happening over there?_" instead of delta, he received a call from beta leader, who reported that they are the closest to delta's last known position.

"_We're nearing the location, we could hear gunfire a few seconds ago, but its quiet now_" spoke beta leader as his team reached the delta team last know location. "By the spirits, major, their all dead"

"_Talk to me beta, what killed them!_" major Faustus wanted to know as he and his team made their way towards beta team's location.

"_Major, this is alpha, we found something, looks like one of those gas ball animals native to this planet, only that its smaller and deadlier, killed by Batarian small arms_" Faustus ignored this as he was currently more concerned about what killed delta team and he wanted vengeance for murder of his fellow Turian soldiers.

"_Major, we can't find any bullet wounds. I'm not a medic, but as far as I can tell, these Turians died by a brute force. It's like an enraged krogan ripped them to shreds_"

"_MAJOR! Hostile contact! Under heavy fire from Batarians!_" yelled alpha team over the sound of gunfire in the background "_I'm the only one left of alpha team, the other two fell in opening salvo!_"

Faustus and his team just reached the hallway where the squad split up "_Repeat that alpha, did you say that the Batarians are firing at you?_" all he received in reply was a scream from alpha team and once again a static filled the channel just like it did with Delta.

"_Beta, were falling back, whatever is in here just killed six Turians._" He waited a moment for Beta to acknowledge.

"_Roger that major, Beta falling back. SIR! Something just pulled the bodies of delta team into the shadows!_"

"_What pulled them? Did you see what did that?_" major Faustus yelled into his radio communicator

"_Something big sir, something really big, trooper behind you!_" yelled Beta leader and sound of gunfire was heard among the noises of panic and terror "_By the spirits, we're facing living corpses!_" screamed one of the Turians in beta team "_Corpses of humans and Batarians!_"

"_That holds and fire weapons! What the? GRENADE! Get do…_" all that Faustus heard was explosion following by static.

"_Major, we should get out of here while we still can_" said a Turian who was with major Faustus. He turned towards this Turian and looked into his faceplate.

"_You're right, we should, get working on those doors_" the second Turian turned to the doors and put his rifle on his back.

"_On it sir_"

Faustus turned to the Turian who suggested that they retreat and pointing to a corridor "_You take position there while I take my position on the other side, shoot anything that moves_"

"_Got it sir_" with that said, he took the position then aimed his rifle down the corridor and waited.

"_How long until those doors are open?_" asked Faustus while he kept his focus down the corridor.

"_Sir, it should take me a minute tops_" It was then that major heard a crawling sound coming from the vents, so he aimed his rifle upwards.

"_Contact!_" yelled the trooper and opened fire.

Faustus looked down the corridor and froze at the sight. About a dozen of corpses stumbled down the hallway and had their weapons pointed towards them. Before he could fire something jumped onto his back. He reached to grab whatever fell onto his back and grabbed it, only to explode in his hand. He had no time to check what it was as he was too busy firing at the corpses advancing towards them.

"_Grenade!_" yelled his partner as he threw a disk shaped grenade in front of the mass of corpses.

Faustus counted to three and the grenade exploded, whipping out the zombies, as he remembers from the human movie he once watched before the war. However, the grenade only killed the advance party, for now they had to face their fellow Turians. They were no different from the previous corpses, but it was still hard for him to fire at his former comrades.

One of the Turian corpses threw a grenade, which unfortunately for the Turian near Faustus, stuck on his armor. Faustus reflexes kicked in and he grabs his fellow Turian and threw him into the incoming living dead. He regretted his decision, but there was nothing he could do now as grenade exploded, killing his squad mate and the Turian corpses walking towards them.

"_What's the status on those doors?_"

"_I can't open them sir, not in time!_"

"_By the spirit, there must be a way!_" he look down the corridor, wishing that he didn't, for he witness a large mass of small ball shaped things, running towards him. Their sheer numbers completely covered the remains of the dead.

"_I won't be able to hold them off any longer!_" he fired his rifle and to his relief a single shot took out a dozen ball shaped beings with a chain reaction. He keeps firing until his weapon overheated. In record time he switched his rifle for his pistol and fired it.

"_I got it, the door is open!_" yelled his last remaining squad mate. Faustus turned just in time to see mass of the small aliens jumping on his back, bringing him down.

"_Major h-help me!_" his squad mate begged.

Faustus however couldn't help him, and he knew it. As he ran past his squad mate, he could hear the Turian cry for help and screamed in agony. Faustus managed to collect a grenade, primed it and threw it behind him as he shut the door.

He heard the sound of the explosion and he said to himself "_I…I'm sorry_" He looked up and as he walked towards the outpost he continued "_May your spirits join the spirits of our ancestors_"

XXXXX

That was the last thing he remember, before he fell unconscious and woke up later in the outpost or so he thought.

"_Doctor, give me his helmet_" spoke the same could voice that spoke before. He couldn't see to whom it belong to, but he heard it belong to a spectre. "_Hmm, yes, his helmet video and audio recording is intact_" he let out a sigh of relief, for now he knows that his superiors will know of the threat.

"_Spectre, what are you doing?_"

While he couldn't see what the spectre did, he felt a barrel of a gun at his forehead. He couldn't tell if spectre wanted to interrogate him, but he doubts that as he was hardly capable of speaking. The second reason why spectre would put a gun at his forehead would be a mercy execution. A second later he heard felt the gun shake. Sound of a gunshot. The feeling of the bullet breaking his skull and the pain as the bullet pierced his brain. He could feel the spirits of his ancestors claiming him and joining his squad mates.

The spectre that pulled the trigger put away his pistol and looked towards the female Turian medic whom looked at him with shock.

"_Don't be so shocked doctor, I granted him mercy, something that you wouldn't_" The spectre then walked out of the medical tent, leaving the Turian doctor stunned behind him.


	6. Chapter 6

**_I would like to apologize for long wait, I have finals coming and I had very limited free time to write this. I hope that this chapter will be god enough to make up for long wait. Also I added a small "spoiler/trailer" for what will happen in chapter 7, it will be probably marked so you will be able to skip it if you don't want to know what happens until you read full chapter 7._**

Q&A

**Will the enemy in halo 4 appear in your story?**

Probably not, depends on who exactly what or who is the enemy in H4, is it the Didact or a precursor, we would need to wait and see.

**What is the type of government UNSC follows?**

They will follow democratic government. The military side of UNSC won't be able to start a full scale war without the approval of the UEG president. Recon however is approved by the fleet admiral in charge.

**What about the systems alliance?**

System Alliance in peace time follows democratic order as well, with president. In war time however the government is replaced with defense committee composed of high ranking officers, usually fleet admirals

**How is the Jiralhanae Empire keep its technological aspects going without the engineers?**

The Jiralhanae won't be having many engineers; however they will be able to receive technology through the use of "trader guild"

**Why are the brutes allied with the elites/UNSC?**

Simple question and a simple answer. ONI set a puppet chieftain on Jiralhanae throne.

**I'm confused are the elites going with the dawn?**

Yes, yes they are.

**Will UNSC Dawn of War be in Mass Effect universe a overpower ship that will be able to take out a fully shielded dreadnought in a single shot?**

No, Dawn will not be able to take out a dreadnought in one shot. In fact I plan to weaken her main MAC gun, you will see exactly how in chapter 7. I know that most of "hardcore" halo fans like to see that happen, however this is crossover, so I am giving something that mass effect fans should also enjoy.

Those are all A&Q I got (If I missed any please inform me)

Thank you!

**Date: July 21, 2582**

**Location: UNSC controlled space, Planet Reach**

The planet Reach, once a mankind fortress in the stars has been ravaged and partially glassed by the covenant in the 2552. Now, almost 30 years later the UNSC have rebuild most of Reach facilities and cities. Now, in 2582 planet Reach is a still a UNSC world, but it's also considered to be a neutral planet, where representatives of both the alien races and the UNSC gather. Right now there are several ships belonging to the Sangheili Empire have arrived on reach. A small group of ships, three CCS battlecruisers and an assault carrier Shadow of Intent. The shadow of intent, one of the Sangheili empire navy flagships carried the arbiter, Thel 'Vadamee who is to meet with a UNSC reprehensive, Fleet Admiral Lord Terrence Hood. Shadow of Intent dock with a valiant class super heavy cruiser, once rare ship in the UNSC fleet, but now a class of warship that is slowly replacing Marathon class as front line warship. Lord Hood flagship is called "Pride of mankind". As the two ships dock together, the representatives of both races meet onboard the Pride of mankind.

Lord Hood, a man of almost 90 years old was flanked by a pair of spartan IVs, a new generation of Spartans, who wore a hybrid version between a MJOLNIR mark VI used by Spartan II and Semi-Powered Infiltration armor used spartan III. The resulting combination gave the IVs an advantage of both armors, thus making the more effective than either IIs or IIIs. They were armed with M7 sub machinegun and a UNSC made point defense gauntlets.

The arbiter escort is composed of three zealot class Sangheili. They are armed with type-1 energy swords and plasma rifles. The arbiter himself if also armed with type-1 energy sword and a needler pistol.

_"Arbiter"_ spoke Lord Hood and offered his hand to the Sangheili _"It's good to see you well"._ Thel made a face that was equivalent to a smile by human standards _"All things considered, I would have to say I am pretty well" _

_"Yes, I heard that there is some unrest among the Sangheili people"_

_"Sadly my friend, it's more than a simple unrest, I fear that we will face a civil war, one that may lead to our extinction if the Jiralhanae intervene"_ spoke Thel with concern. _"I know this feeling, the fear of a civil war made the Spartans, or "The demons" as your kind refers to them"_ replied Lord Hood and added "Perhaps you will make something similar"

_"I would prefer more, peaceful resolution I have seen enough bloodshed under the prophet rule" _said Thel as he and Lord Hood, plus their escort, walked towards the meeting chamber of the Pride of mankind. Thel relinquished his weapons to guards waiting outside the chamber and then both Lord Hood and Thel 'Vadamee walked inside. Inside were only a simple table and a pair of chairs. "_Your ship doesn't seem to enjoy the luxury of our ships"_ commented Thel on the commendation, to which Lord Hood only shrug with his shoulders _"The Pride of mankind is a warship about all else"_

Thel nod with his head as he sit down on the chair that was designed for the Sangheili physiology while Lord Hood sat down on the other chair _"Be it as it may, this not something that we are to discuss"_ Lord Hood had a concerned look on his face as he spoke _"Yes, the rising concern about possibility of the Sangheili civil war and the consequences it might have on the know galaxy"_

_"I want know, if the UNSC would interfere, if the war comes to be?"_

_"Arbiter, I have my belief that the UNSC would support you and your faction in the civil war, but I cannot tell if this support will be a open, or covert support"_

_"I would be grateful for either support you can provide me, now we still have to discuss the matter of Jiralhanae and, the samurai project"_

_"Intelligence reports from ONI prowlers indicate that there are three powerful chieftains who managed to gather a sizable Jiralhanae army. What is surprising about those armies is the fact they seem to posses much more weapons then we believed possible. The majority of those weapons do seem to be human based, however ONI was unable to discover if they have been provided by rouge sections within the UNSC, or if someone is supplying them with our weapons"_

_"It has been almost 30 years since I killed the Jiralhanae war chieftain. Death of which then began this war amongst the tribes, we knew that someone would rise eventually. What we don't know is how this Jirlahane will act"_

_"This is why ONI suggest we either launch a killing blow against the Jiralhanae and exterminate them before they regain their starships and once again spread war in the galaxy" _said Lord Hood with a sigh as he look onto the surface of planet Reach, the planet they were orbiting "_Personally, I would be able to condemn an entire specie into extinction, not when we have a alternative"_ Thel look at the human with curios gaze in his eyes and asked _"Alternative?"_

_"ONI spooks managed to learn of a forth chieftain who managed to gather an army of his own. Its much smaller, and mostly made out of Kig-yar and Unggoy mercenaries, but e has something that Jiralhanae aren't exactly known for, he knows patience"_ As he said the word patience, Lord Hood brought out a datapad and show it to Thel who read the report of a ONI operative _"This chieftain performs a guerilla tactics against his foes, Unggoy suicide bombers and Kig-yar sniping. A coward tactic by Jiralhanae standards, but ONI thinks we can exploit this"_

_"ONI suggests you assist this chieftain to achieve his rise to power, doesn't it?"_ said Thel, now understanding ONI suggestion and Lord Hood nod _"They suggest we supply him with weapons and information he would need to win, in return he, once he achieves control of the Jiralhanae tribes, wont launch a war against either the UNSC, or the Sangheili empire"_ Thel was clearly amused with is plan, so he hardly bother to laugh as he heard it _"And you honestly believe that this chieftain would agree to that?"_

_"We learned much of Jiralhanae during Great War and afterwards, ONI would eliminate this chieftain a year after he achieves control and install a puppet chieftain on the throne. This puppet would be chosen by both us and the Sangheili Empire" _

_"This plan sounds like something the prophets might do, it's possible it might word, but now I have a question of my own to ask you"_ spoke Thel as he stand up, walked to the human he is having conversation with and place his left hand firmly onto human shoulder. He know that the Spartan guards outside have cameras trained on him just in case of an assassination attempt. He was sure that this is just what it looked like to them. Lord Hood didn't flinch as Thel strong arm grip his shoulder; instead he only looked up to the alien eyes. _"Ask then Arbiter"_ Thel look at Lord Hood eyes as he spoke. _"This plan your ONI had suggested for the Jiralhanae, tell me, is it possible that ONI orchestrated chaos that threatens Sangheili race with a civil war?"_

Not moving his gaze away from the alien, Lord Hood spoke _"I can understand why you think this, but I can reassure you Arbiter that we did not orchestrated the civil unrest. I would bet my life on it"_ Thel smiled as he loosen his grip on human shoulder and walked back to his char _"Don't throw your life away so easily admiral, UNSC, whole human race might still require your aid"_ Thel then sat down and he too looked outside onto planet Reach space as he added _"I will know the truth soon enough human, I would hate to start another war with your kind"_

_"This time arbiter, the UNSC would be ready for you"_ spoke Lord Hood in serious tone. The two, despite sharing some sort of a friendship bound together, never really forgot the horrors of the Great War. Thel, before he walked out as the meeting was over offered a handshake to Lord Hood, who accepts it and shake it. _"Until we meet again"_ said Thel and waited for Lord Hood reply who gave it a few seconds later _"I hope that next time we meet, we will be closer friends and not enemies"_ Thel nod and after he and his escort left the UNSC ship he mumbled to himself _"Would it be that easy"_

**Date: January 21, 2588**

**Location: UNSC patrol feet, Admiral Marshall Flagship the Avenging Shadow.**

_"Admiral, fleet reports that sensor sweep is complete, nothing to report"_ spoke the AI on bard the Avenging shadow. Admiral Marshall is a next generation of admirals, who saw some battle against the covenant during close to the end of the war. Marshall at the time was a captain of a Paris class heavy frigate and one off a few ships that survived covenant attack on Earth. After receiving a promotion to the admiral in rather short time, she was assigned to command the ninthouter colony patrol fleet and received a new flagship an upgraded marathon class cruiser The Avenging shadow. Upgraded included a covenant energy shield and slipspace engine along with new type of the MAC cannon and a number of experimental archer mark II missiles.

The ninth patrol fleet consists only of four ships and two destroyers, seven ships totally plus the Avenging shadow. These ships were commissioned by the surviving outer colonies as a means of patrolling the trade routes with the inner colonies after the war. After the war ended and the UNSC begun to rebuild, several surviving insurrection factions began raiding the UNSC convoys heading to the outer colonies. Because of these raiding actions, the surviving governments of outer colonies, afraid that they would lose support of UNSC, denied any warship without UNSC logo to land on their planets. In addition they have begun to publicly supporting the UNSC in hunting the pirates. This is where the patrol fleets come in place.

_"Plan the coordinates for next sector and jump when ready" _spoke admiral with a small trace of boredom in her voice _"Understood admiral"_ replied shadow navigation officer and together with ship AI planed the necessary calculation in order to plan a successful slipspace jump. A swirling blue and white light appeared in front the ship as the jump was finalized and the fleet disappeared into it. An hour later, the fleet emerged at their next destination, the planet harvest. Harvest was once known as agricultural planet that was capable of supporting three planets on its own with the food it could produce on its soil. However in 2525 it was glassed by the Covenant, which started the human-covenant war. Now it's once rich soil is glass, however in 2565 a UNSC scientists begun a deglassing project on it. Being an experiment, it still remains to be seen if the project would work at all. The ninth fleet had orders to check harvest for any sign of progress.

_"Admiral"_ spoke the ship AI and appeared on projector. The AI chose his image to look like a male navy officer. _"Yes, what is it"_

_"I thought you should know. I detected a signal coming from the Harvest orbit. It matches a covenant distress signal used during the war. Admiral, I believe that there is a covenant escape pod, I suggest we recover it"_

_"Elite, Prophet or Brute?"_ asked Admiral Marshall as she looked down onto Harvest _"Ma'am?"_ asked the AI confused, as it wasn't a smart AI, rather a new generation of a "dumb" AI capable of performing greatly multiple assignments unlike the previous generation. They are still inferior to the smart AI, both of previous and the new generation AI. The one on the ninth fleet flagship however, appears to be a faulty or simply overwhelmed by information provided by seven ships under his "protection". Admiral inhaled once and then repeats her question _"Is the signal of Sangheili, Jiralhanae or of the San'Shyum origin?"_

_"Oh, I'm sorry that I did not understand what you meant"_ Apologized the AI. It took him a few seconds before he respond _"The signal is of Sangheili origin Admiral"_

_"Very well, have a pelican recover the pod"_

_"Understood admiral"_ said the AI as he relayed the order. It took pelican pilot a minute to prepare his bird, then about a five minute to reach and recover the pod. Once the pod was onboard the flagship, a team of marines was on standby, in case if the pod occupant is hostile. Each of five marines in team was armed with MA5B assault rifle, preferable for boarding actions due to its 60 round magazine and reduced accuracy compared to MA5C and MA37 rifles used by Army troopers and navy troopers. Admiral was in hangar herself, armed with a M6 SMG _"Officer on deck!"_ yelled a marine officer as she had seen her walk in and saluted her along with everyone else present in the hangar _"At ease"_ said admiral as she returned the salute "_What do we have here sergeant?"_

_"Standard elite escape pod ma'am, whoever or whatever is inside is injured but alive, according to readings…or so we think at least, we can hardly make out anything"_ spoke marine sergeant. He then shows the admiral the panel she was talking about.

_"Open in"_

_"Yes ma'am"_ said marine sergeant and waved to one of the marines _"You heard the admiral marine, open it up"_ as she said that she removed the safety lock from her MA5B rifle and _added "Look alive marines, sleeping beauty inside this thing could be hostile"_ one of the marines holster his weapon and walked towards the pod to open it. Inside of the pod, lay a Sangheili in a minor rank armor. This unknown Sangheili was holding its shoulder, from which a small amount of purple blood was pouring out. _"Well, what do we have here?"_ Spoke admiral Marshall as she walked towards the pod. _"What is a Sangheili doing in UNSC space?"_

The alien let out a small grunt as it exit the pod and look at Marshall as marines raised their assault rifles and aim them at the Sangheili in case if it turns out to be hostile. _"UNSC lost this world when the followers of the prophets turned it into glass decades ago, now it belongs to no one"_

_"That is not what I asked Sangheili, tell me who you are and what is you doing here"_

_"I am Voro' Chonchiyo, one of the Arbiters zealots"_

_"No ee at the end? Oh right, I forgot that you removed those since you rebel against prophets"_ spoke one of the marines in the hangar and slowly lower his rifle. However he was the only one who did that. Admiral Marshall continues with her…interrogation… _"That doesn't explain why you are here Voro, or why you wear a blue armor; you do know those armors signify a rank of minor, not zealot"_

_"I have been sent by the arbiter on a mission against the rebels in these sectors."_

_"And"_

_"And I have attained information that would be useful for your kind. I will reveal it to you if you grant me safe transport to the Sanghelios"_

_"I would offer medical assistance, but that would be dishonorable to you. So chough up your information, now"_

_"Fine, the rebel ship I was station on, was on its way to rendezvous with a sizable fleet, around sixty warships. And from the information I was able to download, before I had to escape, indicates that this fleet intents on glassing several UNSC colonies, as a way to provoke war between our species"_

_"And since you can't contact your own forces, you're hoping that we will destroy this fleet for you_"

_"The destruction of the rebel fleet would both protect your colonies and cripple the rebel forces. The blow to the rebellion could even be enough to completely decimate it, preventing civil war at all"_

_"Just give us the coordinates"_ spoke admiral Marshall and extended her hand towards the Voro, who in turn hand her a datapad. Marshall closed her hand after receiving the datapad. Then she turned to the marines and spoke _"Heal his shoulder wound, and then throw him to the brig until we deal with that fleet"_

_"Yes ma'am!"_ replied the marines as they took the Sangheili to the brig where he would be treated by a ship doctor. Marshal had more important business to take care to bother with him anymore. She went to the bridge of The Avenging Shadow. She then had the ship AI analyze the datapad for information of the Sangheili rebellion fleet.

_"Analysis is complete. The coordinates have revealed that the fleet is stationed around the former colony world known as Arcadia"_ spoke the A.I. after it had finish its analysis of the datapad. _"Send a message to the Fleetcom at Earth, explain them everything that we leaned and send all relatable data"_

_"Understood admiral. I have also learned that the fleet is there for a supply and refit itself. Most of the ships are operating with skeleton crew. If we perform a surgical strike with smaller ships, arm with nuclear devices we would effectively limited the rebel fleet odds of mounting a successful counter attack"_

_ "You are thinking of a battle of Pearl harbor_" Admiral Marshal scratched her chin as she thought this throe. _"We only have nine ships at our disposal nine ships against 60 ships won't hold out for long, our nuclear weapons simply aren't strong enough to destroy such a large fleet"_

_"If I may captain, the Avenging shadow has a single NOVA bomb on board, I believe that this weapon would be more than enough to take care of the rebel fleet."_

_"We have that onboard? Why was I not aware of that?"_

_"I'm sorry admiral; I didn't see the need to inform you of its presence on board. And in this case it will turn into an asset in this mission."_

_"Very well, set it on a remote controlled longsword fighter and be prepared to use it as soon as we jump into sector."_

_"Yes admiral"_

**March 3, 2553** The Human Covenant war is declared over, and the UNSC begins to rebuild, although the Great Schism rages on, whit Sangheili gaining upper hand in civil war quickly.

**March 14, 2553** UNSC finish contact with military bases around Earth and the surviving Inner colonies, revealing that the casualties from the war were not as high as once thought, although still high. Billions died in the war, but it was confirmed that the majority of the Inner Colonies were not glassed, and many left completely untouched, as apparently they were "skipped" as they Covenant found Earth before them. Around 200 planets are confirmed to have survived the war and Humanity's population stands at 62 billion, where it was once 255 billion before the war.

**January 17, 2558** Covenant Separatists bring an end to the Great Schism, due to so many Loyalist planets being glassed that they were unable to continue the war. The San'Shyuum is believed to be extinct after to the battle of Delta Halo, and the lack of Jiralhanae tactical knowledge contributed to their downfall.

**January 28, 2558** The Sangheili, enter in an era of political disaster, with multiple factions emerging to challenge the arbiter government and his alliance with the human kind. Many factions begin openly arm themselves, but only the faction "True Sanghelli" who still believes that the forerunners are their gods' appears to posse's starships.

**December 12, 2561** UNSC scientist discover how to reverse the glass on glassed planets back into fertile and habitable planets however process is extremely long and its believed that a entire millennia may pass before a planet can fully recover, or at all. Admiral Hood manages to approve this theory in action and several ships are dispatched to declass those planets with minority of glassed surface, Reach being one of them.

**September 27, 2566** UNSC receives report of a military colony that went silent after Earth was hit are still active. However they are now actively hostile towards the UNSC and aliens, seeing to them that they betrayed the dead humans by ally themselves with the Sangheili. ONI is told to keep close watch on them. This colony become known as the "forgotten ones"

**August 9, 2576** UNSC begins operation "Salvaging the dead" The purpose of this is to salvage ship debris in order to convert them into material needed to construct new ships. The true Sangheili who believe that the UNSC will gain covenant technology by scavenging the destroyed covenant ships had begun destroying as many of those as they could with their limited amount of ships. This nearly led them into conflict with UNSC escorts that provided protection to the scavenger ship.

**January 16, 2588** UNSC recover impressive amount of forerunner technology on several of their colonies that had remain hidden to both them and the covenant during the war. Now whit the UNSC knowing what to look for they with the assistance of "wild" Huragok have begun reverse engineer actual forerunner technology. Most notable discovery is the ability to extent human life. An adult life can be extended to 500 years (due to genetic problems it can't be extended further) while a child could live up to 2000 years. Some people may complain the reduction at aging, as a theory exist that a 100 year old man would actually look like a 10 year old boy, however this had not been yet conformed.

**February 13, 2588** Acting on the information recovered from arbiter spy, a UNSC admiral Julia Marshall and her ninth fleet with assistance of seventh and eleventh fleet destroy a large fleet belonging to the "true Sangheili" inside the UNSC border. The attack achieved complete surprise and in resulting battle not a single Sangheili was spared. This action had a mix result for Admiral Marshall. The Arbiter privately congratulates her on her victory, while publicly his faction condemns her attack. However popularity among UNSC colonies arose, as this attack demonstrate that the UNSC is now strong enough to defend their worlds.

**October 30, 2592** Contact with "the forgotten" colony is lost. ONI, along with Sangheili intelligence manages to create a puppet chieftain on Jiralhanae homeworld Doisac. They provide him with weapons and training, so that "their" chieftain would win in civil war.

**July 20 2593** UNSC discovers the reason for "the forgotten" silence. Their worlds have fallen to the parasite known as the flood. UNSC immediately scrambles a large task force to rescue survivors and make sure that no flood infested ship escapes. Upon arrival they learn that colony garrison destroyed the ships when flood infestation had overwhelmed them. Survivors were hidden in shelters where the UNSC marines rescued them after which UNSC fleet fired MAC rounds into the planet to neutralize the flood.

**November 5, 2593**. Flood existence spreads into general public, but instead of panic, the mankind unites under UNSC banner, thus ending any mistrust between the UNSC and the surviving insurrection worlds, as they are both human faction trying to survive in hostile universe.

**December 28, 2623** The puppet chieftain achieves total dominance on Doisac. Because this chieftain begun to show signs of building a massive fleet to burn UNSC and Sanghelli worlds he was assassinated and his son had taken the throne. He proved to be more cooperative.

**January 12, 2625** The Treaty of Reach is signed. This treaty officially ends all hostilities between the UNSC, Sanghelli and the Jirllahaine Empire. UNSC is forbidden to create offensive plasma weapons; however pulse lasers are allowed to be mounted on ships for defensive purposes. UNSC must also limit training of the Spartan IVs to only a company per planet, thus allowing them to have, give or take, roughly around 50'000 Spartans IV (ONI secretly begun gathering kids from orphanages, to train them in Spartan 2, their numbers so far are in hundreds) and severely reduce production of NOVA bombs. The Sangheili and Jiralhanae must limit production of assault carriers and other ships that are larger than three kilometers as well as stop any research to the AI. The treaty also allows the creation of trader guild, a neutral organization tasked with trading between the races. The crew for theses trader ships can be composed of any alien race (majority of them are humans and the Kig-yar) and can use any ship that is smaller than one kilometer, although some actually use a CSS battlecruisers and CAS carriers. They are however striped of their offensive weapons and only have defensive weapons.

**August 23 2626** ONI reveals (no publicly) the Viking and the Samurai project. Both of which simply putted to be Sangheili and Jiralhanae codeword for their own "Spartan" project. Samurai was introduced first and Sangheili subjects have been trained for the arbiter in case of Sangheili civil war. The Viking is Jiralhanae whose production was limited and only a few were trained for puppet chieftain during Jiralhanae civil war. ONI also revealed that both "super aliens" have been booby trapped. Each subject is implanted a pod with lethal poison in their hearth to quickly terminate them as well as a small chip in their brain that allows ONI to brainwash them over large distance in case if UNSC ever has to fight another war against the Sangheili and Jiralhanae.

**Present day, 2706** UNSC now has total of 245 colonies under their control with 70% of them having their own defensive force of at least 20 ships. Those ships however do not have slipspace engine on them so they are purely defensive. UNSC plans to make every colony as self sufficient in time of war as possible, so that starvation does not spread like it did in Great War. The Unggoy, are now a client race of the UNSC, thus meaning they are protected by them. In return the Unggoy mine resources on methane worlds where they thrive. Talks are in motion between the "big three" super powers about forming a galactic union where all alien races (human included) would unite under single banner. While similar to the Covenant the main difference would be that there would be no ruling caste instead there would be a senate like leadership.

**_Once again, I would like to appologize again if the chapter 6 was not worth the wait._**

****SPOILER! ****

**_Further look in Alliance admiral politics and explained "alliance" flood._**

**_UNSC Dawn of War refits and follows SSV Normandy into mass Relay, with a surprise _**

**_Sangheili versus Batarian space battle!_**

**_Master Chief and his Cerberus team raids Turian target._**

**_Council learns the hospitality of the Halo Rings first hand._**


End file.
